Love Tokens
by CruensMonstros
Summary: AU. Having been bullied all her life, Tsuna winds up joining the Mafia, only to have a whole new mountain of problems topple her way. Modern-day Cinderella fic! Fem!Tsuna. Giotto x Tsuna /G27. Slight AllTsuna.
1. Bad Luck

**My first KHR fanfic. I apologize if some characters seem OOC. Clearly, I haven't planned this very well, but I'll do my best with it. **

**But please, take your time and enjoy, "Love Tokens".  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn. It belongs to the almighty Amano Akira-sama.**

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><p><em>"It wasn't a choice to begin with.<em>

_So pay no heed,_

_To the girl shrouding in the corner,_

_Crying tears of gold." **-C.M. Lennii**_

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><p><em><strong>First Token/ **_

_**'Bad Luck'**_

Luck was never with Tsuna. That wasn't a statement - it was a fact.

She sat down quietly in the shade under the shelters and hugged her knees to her chest while she watched the other idiots splash each other with cold water in absolute boredom. The sun was out and on the other side of the pool by the fence, she could see the PE instructor flexing his tanned muscles and showing off to those 'cooler' girls in their bikinis and short- and by that she meant 'butt length'- skirts.

The _proper_ way to wear their skirt was by having them down to their knees, like how she wore them. Those girls surely didn't care about the fact that they showed more of their undergarments than the clothes worn over.

Tsuna stared enviously at their legs. The girls were tall, and had tanned and long legs, while she was pale, and rather short for a 16 year old girl. She'd tried visiting the beach a few times as a kid and just sat under the sun for the whole afternoon, and yet she still stayed whiter than the sand by the time she came home.

If a stranger saw her walking down the streets, she would've been mistaken for a little middle schooler, if it wasn't for her chest. And her chest was something she wasn't so proud of. Being 2 years away from adulthood, she was rather disturbed to find that out of her classmates and peers, she was the _only_ one with such mature developments in the chest area, with the ugly bulge sticking out when she first wore her school shirt at home.

She hadn't noticed this change until the start of high school, unfortunately.

And to avoid unwanted attention from pervs, she was forced to wear a loose and baggy jumper all year round to make them seem smaller- with no exception to the extreme weather. She wished she never had to grow such disturbing things. And for the umpteenth time, she wished she was born a boy. A strong, healthy boy who could do_ so_ many badass things.

And there were the boys, running around, chasing each other. There were a few other students being silly as well, throwing others into the pool like sacks of potatoes.

On second thought, it was better being an innocent little useless girl.

Some boys screamed hysterically as their comrades threw them into the water. She could sympathise with those victims, as she, wouldn't have liked the sensation of water rushing up her nose and the chlorine stinging her eyes, making her sputter and choke; not to mention sap all her energy away.

Must've been some kind of new allergy.

Besides, the water was only going to make her fluffy hair even harder to comb, and she didn't want to have to chop it off again when she had finally let it grow out down to her back. The top still stayed short and fluffy though, no matter how much she tried to make it grow.

Despite the encouraging speeches the whole year had gotten from the teachers the day before, she couldn't be bothered to change out of her school uniform, and into her swimmers.

Very few students decided not to join in the fun, and the majority of them were either nerds or hydrophobic. And they, were at least in their swim suits, chatting away with their own friends about other guys and gossiping behind their enemy's backs. Good for them, she thought. The last thing she wanted to do was to hear a nasty rumour and then be suspected of starting it when it got around.

It was going to be their problem, not hers.

That is why she never enjoyed 'Pool Day' at school.

The whole freshman year was allowed in the pool for the morning as a treat, for achieving high results in the test that was set right after summer break. It was forecasted to be a blisteringly hot day today, reaching 38 Degrees Celsius (1).

It felt like she was living in a furnace.

She squinted at the glare reflected off the water's surface. She should be allowed to go back into the classroom, if she asked. It was a cool and peaceful place where she could enjoy her solitude.

Since the start of high school, she had been alone because her friends had been sent to other schools by their parents. Unlike them, she was admitted to Namimori High because that was literally the only school she could go to within walking distance.

Oh, the tears she had shed upon the separation. It was sad, yes.

The brunette got up, patted her skirt of dust and headed for the instructor when the girls finally left him alone. The sudden sunshine heated her jumper even more and she wanted to stick her legs into the cool water, but as a precaution, she decided not to.

Especially with so many wild and dangerous people around her.

She made her way across the length of the pool in her bare feet, and was busy concentrating on notstepping into the warm and slimy puddles. There was a lot of noise coming from behind her.

When she turned around, a group of half naked homo sapiens bustled against her, shoving and pushing, until she fell into the water. She bit hard onto her lip. If she had left them open, she would've screamed. She felt the cool water slap against her skin and the chlorine smelling liquid rush up her nose, as tears welled up in her eyes.

She couldn't swim either.

Such bad luck...

"Oi, did you hear something?" asked the captain of the baseball team, a tall and athletic boy with a healthy looking tan.

"Of course we heard something, Yamamoto!" laughed one of his mates. They teamed up and grabbed their captain by the arms and tossed him. There was a loud explosion of water.

After a few seconds, he emerged to the surface laughing, "Hey, I said no cheating!"

"We weren't cheating! Your guard was down!"

Yamamoto grinned widely and flicked his wrists, splashing his friends with water. He stopped when he saw someone floating in front of him.

"Oi, you'll be dragged into the fight if you don't move out of the way," He called out. The body didn't move. A rush of panic surged through him as he made his way towards it. "Oi!"

"W-What's wrong, Yamamoto?"

"She's not moving!" he yelled back, grabbing the attention of his friends. "I think she fell!"

His friends grabbed by her arms and hurried her to the surface.

"But why would she still be in her school uniform?" a guy asked his friend.

"Like hell I'd know!"

"Put her down! I'll call for sensei!"

They placed her down on the concrete, and formed a crowd around her. They murmured to each other in panicky voices, with absolutely no clue what they should do.

Well, they were idiots after all.

When he ran back with the PE instructor, the crowd had expanded, with nearly the whole freshman body shoving around to catch a glimpse of just who was moronic enough to have drowned today.

"Out of the way!" The bulky instructor boomed, and automatically, a passage was cleared, with students jumping back into the pool and looking on through people's legs. The instructor pushed his palms down in the middle of her chest with his almighty strength, causing Tsuna to cough out the swallowed water, and she continued to cough violently. The PE instructor quickly turned her to the side with a heroic grin.

The crowd had gotten silent by the time she stopped coughing.

"A-Are you… alright?" asked a boy.

His girlfriend stood behind him, and she had the same worried look on her face. Why was it impossible for them to mind their own business?

"Geez, how could she be alright?" said another guy, but it was obvious that he was relieved that she hadn't drowned. What, so he didn't have to attend her funeral? "Right, captain?"

"Maa maa, it was still a close call." He bent down to help her up. Tsuna looked up through stinging and watery eyes. Through her hair, she could see a group of girls behind him glowering down at her which made her feel uncomfortable.

The Yamamoto guy must've been rather popular and according to their so called 'girl law', no one was allowed to mess with him unless they were equal.

It was best not to get in their way.

Ignoring the hand that was stretched out for her, she sat up by herself and waited for the stinging to go away. She opened her eyes again, glaring, silencing her audience.

"I..." She said, before she lowered her voice. "… Friggin' hate you guys."

She stood up and excused herself from the pool and stormed off to the change rooms. She could hear a few murmurs behind her saying, "How rude..." and "What's her problem?" and the sort, but a deed's been done, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Besides, it was their fault to begin with.

When she felt that she was alone in the change rooms, she banged her head against the wall which formed a small dent.

"Damn."

The rest of her day went as expected.

In the corridors and in class, people avoided her, trying to make as little eye contact for fear of being looked at with those hateful eyes. Well, she wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone anyway.

Some teachers had asked her to remove her jumper, and let it dry itself in the sun, but she refused politely, saying that it was alright. Her shirt was still skin-tight because of the water and it was most likely transparent. and she could not risk embarrassing herself again with her flashiness.

She didn't want to draw too much attention to herself anyways.

In maths, she tried to sit as close to the window as she could by edging her seat to the side and was caught in the process by a strict teacher.

"What on earth are you doing, Sawada?" he said, in his monotone. "Have you not bothered the class enough today?"

She racked her brain for something to say. "I-I'm growing more brain cells so that I can solve this problem, _sir_."

"Then I suppose you can come to the front and answer the question on the board." He threw a chalk at her table and it bounced right off her book and onto the floor.

Feeling annoyed, she bent down and picked it up before she made her way to the front, only to trip over someone's leg and make a scene out of herself. When she turned around to the owner of the leg, a girl named M.M stuck out her tongue.

"Loser." She whispered, before she smiled mischievously and raised her hand.

"Yes, M.M?" The teacher asked, in his same bored voice."What's the problem now?"

"Nothing, sir." She said. "It's just that I wanted to report to you that Tsunayoshi-san over here has just tripped over her own legs, so she might take a while to get to the board. That is all!"

"That had nothing to do with maths, and no one asked you to report what she did. Sawada, can you get to the board without making such a fuss? The whole world won't wait for you, you know." He said in a louder voice.

And as usual, there were people couldn't resist making fun of her. Heaving a sigh, she got up and stomped on M.M's foot when the teacher wasn't looking. "Yes, sir."

She smirked. Seeing M.M's scrunched up face as she grabbed her foot was a victory for her. She heard M.M cuss under her breath (something very unladylike) and her smirk grew even wider.

Tsuna was glad when the bell rang for home time. She packed up, rushed out of the classroom and down the halls to the shoe cabinets, where she changed her shoes quickly and ran out the front doors, faster than anyone.

This became a habit ever since she returned from summer break.

She had gotten herself a part-time job in the small bakery downtown in the Namimori shopping district and despite only having been there for 2 weeks, it already made her feel at home and welcome. Unlike here at school, where she hardly knew anyone.

The shop was now currently run by the young manager and his best friend, along with two of her own friends - the main reason why she looked forward to her job. The three friends were walking down the streets one day, when they saw a cute looking bakery with a cheery faced customers leaving the doors. They then entered the shop and asked the red-haired man behind the counter if there were any places available for part-timers.

When he looked at them with a 'What on earth?' look, she wondered if he was going to reject them flat out. Then the blonde-haired manager appeared from the other room with a tray of pastries to put up for sale.

He caught a sight of the three of them and asked what he could do for them, and the red-head had explained the situation in a low and rather annoyed tone, to her surprise.

What was even more surprising was that the blonde haired manager had agreed immediately, saying something like, "...Being shorthanded…" and "…Needing more helpers…" while the red-head just stared after him in disbelief, yelling at him for being so careless.

And that was how the three of them got the jobs.

As days passed, the red-head, whose name was G, finally softened up around the girls to the point where he could show them how to bake a shortcake without having to raise his voice over things like broken plates and having to bandage bloody fingers. He used to be so hostile that it was impossible to stay on the same page without being scooted away to do other tasks.

And when the blonde, whose name was Giotto, was in the shop, he let the girls take the unsold pastries home for free.

When she arrived at the café, she poked her head in through the open door and saw G serving a customer with his back to her.

"Good afternoon, G-san!"

She jumped and turned around with a scowl on his face, but when he saw who it was, he smiled warmly. "Oh, hey Tsuna, you're early today."

He walked over to the counter to serve a young boy who appeared to be in his early elementary years. "Kyoko and Haru haven't come yet, just to tell you."

"Okay, that's good." She wouldn't want them to see her in this sloppy state, not that they would've minded, but still, it was a little embarrassing to go serving customers when you smelt like the pool. "Can I borrow the shower for a sec?"

G raised an eyebrow, and looked at her curiously. "Sure, but what for?"

"I uh… Want to wash off some of the chlorine."

"Chlorine?"

"Yeah, it was 'Pool Day' at school today."

G left his mouth open in an 'o' shape, and looked at her again before he frowned. " You've been swimming in _that_?"

"...Not exactly…" she muttered darkly, "… I wouldn't call it swimming…"

"Speak louder, I can't hear you when you're standing so far away."

She sighed. Maybe it was a better idea not to tell him about her clumsiness. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

G looked at her for a while and nodded his head slowly. He didn't ask any more questions either, and turned back to the line of eager customers.

"So where's the shower?" She asked.

"I showed you where it was on your first day here, didn't I?" He replied. He glanced over his shoulder, and his red eyes bored onto her expectantly.

She tried to remember him telling her where the bathroom was, and failed.

He sighed. "It's at the back, next to the prep room. You need to remember that next time."

"Oh, right." She rolled up her sleeves and hurried towards the shower 'at the back and next to the prep room'. How was she supposed to remember something like that? She muttered to herself under her breath, and her face smacked right into something- or in this case, someone.

Her poor nose.

"Oh, Tsunayoshi, you're here already?" said a voice from above her. Looking up through squinted eyes, she saw the blonde manager in a dress-shirt, taking off his oven mittens. She stared at his shirt. Just who in his right mind would wear something so bloody hot on a summer's day? "I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Are you alright?"

_'...I didn't see you.' _

To her, that was an insult.

"Yes, I'm _fine_, manager."

Giotto sighed. "How many times have I told you to stop calling me 'Manager'? Just call me 'Giotto' or if that sounds too foreign to you, 'Ieyasu'."

She grumbled, "Well, you can stop calling me Tsunayoshi and call me 'Tsuna'. It sounds too formal when people say it the long way."

"But isn't your name 'Tsunayoshi'?" Giotto chuckled and then ruffled her hair playfully. "I'm not 'Manager', you know?"

She flushed. "W-well I don't like it when people call me that."

"I don't either, _Tsunayoshi_."

There was something in this blondie that she didn't like. His calm and carefree expressions. Even when suspicious looking customers dressed in black suits came into the shop and disturbed the other customers, he never raised his voice and when the girls had broken plates and cups, only G was sane enough to scold them.

Yet her manager was always the calm one. And calm people reminded her of a certain scary person.

"Whatever you say." She ducked under the blonde's arm to get to the room behind him.

She closed the door behind her and took off her jumper instinctively.

"Eghhh… I smell like the pool." She wrinkled her nose and took off her clothes and rinsed them under the warm water, and tried to get rid of as much of the chlorine as possible with the soap. After they seemed clean enough, she placed them into the dryer and popped into the shower herself.

The warm water felt nice against her skin for a change and she scrubbed at her hair the best she could and ignored the pains she felt from accidently tugging at a sun-dried-chlorine knot. Those were tolerable at least.

When she believed she was done, she turned off the shower and blew away the steam. She reached for a towel on the towel rack and frowned when her hand came into contact with the wall. Fumbling blindly, she let her hand slide across the cool metal bar and her fingers touched the other side of the pole.

Taking a peek through the gap in the shower curtains, she looked for the towel-looking things that should have hung from those towel racks attached glumly to the wall.

After a few minutes of searching for the towels through empty cupboards, cabinets, towel-racks and cupboards again, she came to the conclusion that there weren't any in the room. Oh boy. Such bad luck she had today. She gathered as much courage as she could and popped her head out of the room and into the passageway and out of luck, or maybe bad luck, saw the blonde walk out of the prep room.

She immediately closed the door again, and hid behind it, eyes wide.

What the hell was she doing?

She gulped and stuck her head out again, making sure that only her head was visible. And this time, he was walking back to the prep room, and she had a feeling that he saw her, but had decided to ignore it.

"Manager…?" It was awkward because no one answered. Was he ignoring her on purpose? She wondered if Kyoko or Haru had come for work yet. But thinking that it could take a while before any of them went past the prep room, she decided that there was no other choice.

There was no way that she was going to wait for the water on her skin to dry, and catch a cold for some stupid reason. She opened the door, puffing out her cheeks.

"Ieyasu…?" She said quietly.

"What's wrong?" Asked a voice pleasantly. The blonde's sudden appearance made her jump, and she fought against the urge to slam the door on his face. She could see that the corner of his mouth curved up into a slight smile.

"T-there are no towels in here." She muttered, feeling the heat get to her cheeks. She shivered as a breeze blew by, and came in contact with the water droplets on her skin. She was definitely catching a cold.

"There aren't?" He creased his brows smoothly. "I'll be back in a second."

She sighed and leaned back against the door. Inwardly, she cursed G for being so careless. If there weren't any towels in there he could've told her! This wasn't funny.

Moments later, the blonde came back with a white towel. He handed it to her, and then went back into his prep room silently. She hurried to dry herself and took her clothes out of the dryer. She put them on and made sure the room was the way she found it - minus the towel now hanging on the rack.

When she left the room, she found Kyoko and Haru in the shop, serving customers happily. At least they didn't have to deal with all that stuff.

When G saw her, he greeted her again. Running up to him, she reached on her tip toes, she grabbed a hold of his cheeks and pulled on them fiercely.

"Why didn't you tell me there weren't any towels in there?" She whispered darkly.

"W-what? There weren't?"

"Yuh!" she exclaimed, "What else could have taken me so long?"

"Tch, I swear I put them in there this morning!"

She let go of his cheeks and stared out into the open. G backed away from her, and rubbed his sore cheeks protectively. If G put them into the room this morning… How come she didn't see them?

"Can you take this order to table 5, Tsuna-chan?" asked Kyoko in a sweet voice. Tsuna looked up from her daze and her eyes met with soft golden orbs. She was then handed a metal tray and an apron. Sighing, she brushed the matter off of her mind.

Nothing could make her day any worse, when she was in the company of Kyoko and Haru.

Smiling, she put on her apron, and headed off to do her duties.

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><p>Notes:<p>

(1) - I live in Australia, and we measure our temperature by degrees celcius.

**Please R & R. **


	2. What's Gone Wrong Now?

I'm really happy. I can't explain it in words. Maybe if someone had gutted me right here and now, hanged me upside down on the softest branch they could find and let me drip to my bittersweet end, would I ever be able to describe how I feel.

...I kid... 8D

But thankyou for all of you who reviewed so far! Here's chapter two!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! It rightfully belongs to Amano Akira.**

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><p><strong>****Second Token/ **

**'What's Gone Wrong Now?'**

The children running around in the café made it hard for Tsuna to navigate without bumping into them. They sang to the rhythm of the popular children's show 'Superpoh' (1), and role played the latest episode with the main character Poh rescuing the princess from the grasp of the villainous Dragon Lord.

"Get away from my honey, you pugly looking reptile!" A pink haired boy cried out, pointing his small finger at his enemy, a green haired boy with a bed head. Looking on behind him stood the pink haired boy's look-a-like, someone who the brunette had deducted as the princess in their game.

The green haired boy grabbed the girl by the wrist and pulled her forward. "She is going to be my bride - my queen, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"We'll see about _that_! Pew! Pew! Pew!" The pink haired boy shouted, before he ran forward and shot imaginary fireballs at his enemy, who jumped out of the way, narrowly missing the edge of a table.

By now, the whole café had heard their yells and were watching on silently at the drama played before them.

"Hahaha! It seems that you have not yet learnt your lesson." The green haired boy laughed shrilly. "Shall I burn you to ashes, just like what I had done to your petty hut of wood?"

"As if you can do that! I'll be roasting you on a stick for my dinner before you even so much as breathe another breath!"

Grabbing plastic forks, the both of them had pretend sword fights while the princess just sat on her throne munching on her shortcake. With a final yelp, the green haired boy tossed his fork onto the floor.

"Arrrrrrgh!" He fell to the floor as well and turned his head towards the pink haired boy. "This will be your last victory, Poh! There will be stronger opponents out there, waiting for you. I won't be the last one."

The pink haired boy started to walk away but stopped and turned his head to look back at the defeated lord. He said in a low voice, "Then let them come!"

The whole café erupted into cheers and some adults complimented the surprised children on their excellent acting. The children's mothers took their kids by the arm and led them out of the building after bowing and thanking the audience for their hospitality and for putting up with the noise.

Tsuna smiled and waved them goodbye. "Have a great day!"

The green haired boy turned around to wave, "Bye-bee, onee-san!"

After she watched the kids leave she turned around and saw Kyoko standing behind her with a strange face. Tsuna blinked.

"I-is there something wrong?"

Kyoko looked at her for a moment longer, before she broke into her usual angelic smile. Tsuna could feel her heart melt with her friend's cuteness. Her long and lush orange hair fell down from her shoulders and she had a soft expression on her face. Tsuna couldn't help but blush at her innocent look.

Kyoko pouted. "You weren't scared at all were you?"

"Nope." she smiled. "We should get back to work now, before G starts yelling at us for leaving all the work to Haru-chan."

"Yup."

"Tsuna!" G called from behind the counter. "Can you take my place for a sec? I need to go look for something in the storeroom."

"Okay~"

If this was a normal day, she would have refused and let Haru take the counter instead. But since it was near closing time, and there were few customers around, it was okay. Kyoko went to serve the young lady at the back of the room while Haru went to the group of high school girls in the family corner. They whispered furiously as soon as they saw Haru coming.

With a strained smile a tanned girl with multiple piercings stuttered a weary 'thanks', and waited for her to leave before they continued on.

Tsuna sighed. The way the girls had acted made it look like they were gossiping. People like them always made her feel angry. It was pain to be a high schooler. When you were an adult, people wouldn't talk about you behind your back, and they wouldn't spread rumours, just to get the teachers on your case.

Kyoko peered at the girls from behind the counter with a sullen look. She clenched her fist, digging her nails into her hand.

_"What are you going to do now?" The red headed girl taunted, "Cry to mama? Ooh Mama, Mama, Mama, save me!" _

_Her friends snickered and bawled over laughing at their leader's imitation of the orange haired girl. She slouched into a ball in the corner of the classroom and her eyes were overflowing with tears. _

_She hiccupped and mumbled in a near inaudible voice, "S-Stop it… Ami-chan..." _

_"Hah?" Ami bent over. "What was that? You've got to speak like a normal human if you want me to listen, Kyoko-chan~. I only talk to humans."_

_The orange haired girl sobbed and buried her head into her arms. The teacher had gone out to help a boy down from a tree and the rest of the class had followed. The only children left in the room were Ami and four of her friends, an odd girl named Tsuna and herself. _

_She was shy, timid and small. The perfect target for stronger kids in the class. She couldn't make any friends on her first day and she couldn't speak up to them, often blushing and then hiding behind the teacher's legs when her classmates did talk to her._

_She didn't dare ask the brunette at the front of the classroom for help. When the teacher first announced that they were having a student enter the class later than the others, Kyoko had first thought, 'Maybe we could be friends.' _

_But when Tsuna came into the class without even smiling once, Kyoko knew that was impossible. _

_The brunette was quiet most of the time and when other girls did talk to her she either gave them glares or the silent treatment. And soon enough, the other kids have learnt to leave her alone to her own devices. _

_"Ne, your princess is bored." Ami said in a matter-of-fact way to her friends. "I need something entertaining."_

_Her friends looked at her with confused expressions on their faces. They obviously didn't know what their leader wanted to do._

_"Tsk, you bunch of idiots. I'll show you!" She muttered under her breath. She grabbed the top of Kyoko's head. "You piss me off, you!"_

_She cried out in pain and tried to grab at the girl's hand. More tears poured out from her eyes. "Oww~ Stop it, Ami-chan!"_

_Ami furrowed her eyebrows deeply, an irritated growl left her throat. "Stop acting! You're always pretending to be weak! What the hell?" _

_She tugged at Kyoko's hair, messed it up and slapped the crying girl's hands away, leaving angry red marks on them. Kyoko only cried harder._

_Her head hurt and her hands stung. Her vision was blurred by her blotchy tears and she had no strength to stand up and run. Not that she would get very far. Her ears were drowned by the sound of laughter and she no longer heard her voice. _

_"There you go." Ami sneered and stood back to admire her work. "You look as pretty as a flower, Kyoko-chan. A ruined one, that is."_

_Her friends laughed at the state of their new toy. Her hair was messed up with a multiple tangles visible. Her face was red and wet with streams of tears trailing over her face. Her hands were planted on the ground, shaking with angry scratch marks on them. _

_Kyoko looked down at the floorboards. "S-stop it..." _

_"'Stop it!' 'Stop it!' 'Stop it!'" Ami pulled her hand back. "Will you ever stop saying that? Just looking at you makes me sick!"_

_Kyoko cringed and backed away as far as she could against the wall as she waited for the impact. _

_SLAP!_

_When Kyoko didn't feel anything hit her, she opened her eyes to look at her attackers. Her eyes widened._

_Standing in front of her was Tsuna. The quiet, silent, anti-social and indifferent girl who she had seen sitting down at the front of the class just moments ago. And in front of the brunette was Ami, with a red hand mark on her face. She looked stunned. _

_"Knock it off will you?" Tsuna said in a calm voice. "Your ranting is so annoying." Tsuna threw a punch in Ami's face, knocking her to the ground. _

_Her minions gasped and backed away from the brunette, getting onto their knees to check on their leader. Taking this as an opportunity, Tsuna grabbed Kyoko by the arm and pulled her out of the room as quickly as she could to join up with the rest of the class. _

"Welcome~" Kyoko, Tsuna and Haru greeted the customer who just entered the doors. It was a green haired man with a lightning shaped tattoo under his right eye.

The man lugged himself to the back of the room and sat down irritably at the table in the far corner.

Tsuna went up to him with a smile. "What would you like to order, sir?"

"I'm not ordering anything but you can get me Giotto." He said lazily as he placed a leg over the other and leaned back into his chair to nap. She sweatdropped awkwardly at the man's carefree and laid-back personality.

"Um… Is there something you need from our manager?"

"Yes." He replied shortly. "Don't make Lampo-sama wait too long. Hurry up. Go."

"I... see…" This man somehow made her feel ticked off.

"Go on, move."

A vein popped on her forehead. She stormed off to the prep room and slipped inside in a silent rage. Who the hell did the brat think he was? Some son of a king? Gosh! Some attitude he had there. What was it with the people here?

She spotted the blonde and yelled, "Manager!"

He choked on his cup of coffee and coughed, while still holding onto his mug, he spilt some of the hot coffee onto his fingers. He let out an undignified curse and rushed to the tap, while she just stood by the door amusedly. Now this was fun.

After a few moments, he turned off the tap and dried his hands with a tea towel. She watched him turn around and look at her with a strained smile on his face.

"Y-Yes, Tsunayoshi?" he stammered. "Can I help you?"

"It's Tsuna." She reminded. "There's a green haired man who wants to talk to you."

She watched his expression change from confusion, to his usual calm and peaceful one. "Sure."

He rolled down his sleeve cuffs from his elbows and made his way to the door. She was going to get out of his way when he suddenly stopped in front of her. He placed a hand on her head. The contact made her flush again. It irked her to know that he was treating her like a kid. What was with it and people trying to make fun of her? Was it that amusing?

"Don't look so bummed out." He insisted, smiling a little. She raised an eyebrow and looked up. Was it possible for him to know what she was thinking?

"Huh?"

His smile grew wider, flashing straight and perfect teeth. "Lampo's not that bad after you get to know him."

"Wha-?"

Why did he think- Oh, good lord. Out of all the things he thought she was thinking… She sighed. Anything but that broccoli head.

"Are you going?" She prompted bitterly. "The broccoli out there doesn't seem like the patient type, you know?"

"I know." He let out a laugh at the mention of 'broccoli' and he ruffled her hair again, making her squirm under his large hand. He stepped past her swiftly, before she could pull his hand away. "And thanks_, Tsuna._"

She blinked after him. It sure was hot today.

When Giotto stepped into the café, he saw G towering over Lampo with a nasty scowl on his face.

"You're ignoring me now eh?" G snarled angrily.

Another thing that Giotto noticed was that the girls were nowhere in sight. Taking a glance at the clock on the wall he realised that the shop had closed and that they had probably gone home already. He walked up to Lampo, who

was trying to get away from G the best he could.

And then the greenie spotted Giotto.

"Primo!" He cried out, overjoyed at the sight of his saviour.

"What are you looking so happy for, moron?" G gave Lampo a well earned whack on the head. Lampo let out an involuntary squeak and tried to shield his head with his hands, as G shook his fist angrily, getting ready for another hit.

"G! Stop it." Giotto said sternly. "What's gone wrong now, Lampo?"

Taking a deep breath, and seeing that G wasn't going to hit him anymore he sighed and straightened up on his seat. "The Retille Famiglia's boss has decided to throw away their treaty with Cozart-san."

"What?" G and Giotto said in unison.

"U-uh…" Lampo squirmed under the stares of the two men. Their seriousness seriously freaked him out sometimes. "T-They've sent an assassination squad to Northern Italy and they've murdered a florist - Alaude didn't say whether it was on purpose – from the small village near the Headquarters of the Shimon Famiglia."

"When was this?"

"T-Two days ago."

"What?" G yelled. He startled Lampo by slamming his fist down onto the table. "Those bastards only signed the contract a week ago!"

"What has the boss of the Retille Famiglia got to say about the incident?" Giotto asked.

"He said it was an accident; that the group were crossing the city when one of their men felt a murderous intent coming from one of the buildings and had accidently pulled the trigger."

"An assassination squad member pulled the trigger by _accident_?" G laughed darkly. He grunted and turned to his best friend. "Giotto, we have to leave for Italy at once. That bastard's obviously lying!"

"Wait, G."

"What is there to wait for?" G said in exasperation. "They've broken their truce with the Shimon Famiglia, Giotto! We're allied to Cozart, aren't we? If they fight, we fight, and that means... _war_." His eyes sparkled unnaturally.

"U-um… I don't think you need to go that far yet…" Lampo murmured. G snapped his head towards the greenie, and hissed.

Giotto shot G a look, before he returned to his lightning guardian. "What do you mean by that, Lampo?"

"I forgot to tell you, but Cozart insisted on meeting up in our headquarters in Italy." He said. "Not just a few henchmen and guardians but everyone. Including you, the boss of Vongola, Primo."

"It seems we have no other choice." Giotto sighed. "We'll leave for Italy next week, after I've done all the paperwork for this side."

"Asari is still in Japan and Alaude, Daemon and Knuckle are all in Italy." Lampo listed, counting his fingers.

"So what we have to do now is give that sword freak a call and tell him to meet up with the rest at our Vongola headquarters back in Italy." said G. He smacked his fist against his palm. "Oh that's right. What are you going to tell the girls, Giotto?"

"Hm, what did you say?" Giotto asked. "I was too busy thinking about something that I didn't hear you."

"You were too busy thinking about something?" His aura turned darker. "I said... WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO TELL KYOKO, HARU AND TSUNA? THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT US BEING A PART OF THE MAFIA!"

Giotto covered his ears and sweat dropped. "Ah…Unfortunately, I didn't think that far yet…" He laughed sheepishly. His ears were ringing.

Lampo yawned and watched G tell Giotto off for being so carefree when they were in the middle of a crisis. Lampo slumped down onto the table and froze when his eyes landed on something.

"We can say that we need to close the shop because we'll be going to be on a holiday?" Giotto said hopefully. G face palmed.

"No! That sounds stupid!" G said in a louder than normal voice. "Besides, it'd sound suspicious with the both of us going off to Italy at the same time!"

"What are_ you _going to tell them if you think that's stupid, hah?" Giotto retorted, his arms akimbo.

"I'll say that we're going off to fight our cousins in Italy." G said matter-of-factly. "It's no big deal. Over here, my neighbours fight every day."

"You're gonna tell them you're going off to_ battle_?" Giotto repeated. He snorted. "You can't do that! That'll just make them think that we're a part of something no good!"

"Um… G-guys?" Lampo squeaked.

"Oh, so you think being the leader of a Mafia group is something '_good'_ eh?" said G. He ignored the broccoli and pretended that he was a part of the background. "Well too bad because that's what we are."

Lampo cleared his throat.

"That's not true!" Giotto raised his voice in desperation. "We started off as a vigilante group protecting the weak! We're not bad!"

"Um… Sorry to interrupt you guys…"

G and Giotto whipped their heads to the greenie.

"Be quiet!" They silenced.

"Uh… About that…" Lampo whispered.

"What is it now, broccoli head?" shouted G.

Lampo sank into his seat and raised his hands in protest. "I did not… say anything…"

"You just contradicted yourself. You opened your mouth just then!"

"G." said Giotto in a quiet voice.

"What is it now?"

"It wasn't him."

"Huh? So now you're siding with the brat?" G shook his fist as another vein popped angrily on his head. "And what do you mean by 'it wasn't him'?"

"He wasn't the one who said that." Giotto whispered faintly.

"Hah? Then who did, if the moss head didn't?" G asked angrily, still glaring at Lampo. Lampo looked as if he might faint.

"Um…" repeated the voice.

G's mouth quirked up into a smirk. "See? I told you…" Lampo was making a cross with his arms. He shook his head violently, and his mouth was shut tight.

G blinked. After a few seconds his eyes widened when the voice registered itself in his mind.

"Turn around, G." Giotto spoke, nearly inaudible.

Slowly, G turned his head and saw what he had dreaded. Out of all the people who could've been there, it had to be the one standing by the doorway right now.

Tsuna. She seemed startled, but it didn't change the fact that it was still her.

Tsunayoshi Sawada. The high school girl who only knew them for 2 weeks. No, less than that.

G face palmed. Lampo fainted. Giotto just stared with what he hoped was a smile on his face. No, it might've been a grimace.

But neither mattered now anyway.

"U-Um…"Tsuna stammered. She could feel her face growing warm - once agin. "S… Sorry?"

There was a silence as nobody dared to talk.

That was it.

G was going to commit murder.

And the first person on his mind was none other than the biggest idiot of all.

Lampo.

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><p>Notes:<p>

Superpoh (1) - That's just the name of a show I made up. I wanted to use something like Superman or Power Rangers as the children's show they sing to, but then again, I don't want to. The song goes like-

La La La Ah~ La La Ah~, It's Superpoh! Oh Oh Oh Oh~ Ooh La La~, It's Superpoh! When there is bad~ It's so bad~, Cos he's here! Who is that?~ Superpoh!

I know it sounds gay, but hey, it's meant to be for children XD - I just made it up on the spot right now... = ="

..

**Please R & R!**

..

I once again apologize if some characters seem OOC. I've been reading too many fanfics that i've started to wonder 'Is tat wat G is like? O[]O' But I can't tell.

I realise that I've changed some stuff. I apologize for those who have read these chapters before I altered some stuff, but please, never the less, continue on this slow boating trip down the waterfall.


	3. Talk

Thankfully, I still remember the plot- I've been daydreaming - and I still have the guts and shamelessness to write it all down. I'm going to cut to the chase and present, chapter three. Please enjoy.

**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR, it belongs to Akira Amano.**

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><p><strong>Third Token/ **

**'A Talk'  
><strong>

Things have now gone from bad to worse .

She watched nervously as G poured her a cup of hot chocolate. After quietly placing the hot beverage in front of her, she thanked him, and he went off towards an open window to light a cigarette- didn't he know that they were bad for his lungs? He leaned against the wall, and stared out into the dark and now deserted street.

Thinking optimistically was probably the best way to deal with this situation. If she looked at it in a play-like way, it would've been exciting, really. For Giotto, the manager of a friendly café to be a Mafia don and for G, to be his right hand man, no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't take them seriously.

The green haired and annoying and irresponsibly naggy man who Tsuna recalled as Lampo had left half an hour ago after having been dismissed by Giotto. She smiled to herself. He was asked to leave because according to Giotto, he would make matters worse, and that he had to go and look for Asari, whose whereabouts are unknown at the moment.

Tsuna was doing her best not to fidget and stay calm. She knew that it was her fault, for barging in on them, but then again, it was the blonde's mistake to forget all about her after just seeing her in the hallway not too long ago before he started that conversation with his men.

Stereotypical Mafioso were supposed to be a bunch of men who dealt with drugs and human trafficking and were 24/7 loaded with 'ready-to-shoot-a-girl-dead' pistols without having a single drop of fear in their veins. If their secret was out, then BOOM... off with her head.

Mafioso were dangerous, she knew that already… But with_ these _people as Mafioso, it just stuffed her whole view of the deadly underground business known as 'Mafia'. She didn't feel threatened at all. Yeah, that was the thing that made her feel odd and out of place.

She took a sip of her hot chocolate, and winced when the hot liquid burnt her tongue. She let out a small grumble and furrowed her brows as she blew on her beverage carefully.

"So…" said Tsuna. She looked up at Giotto through her bangs. "Why are you telling me all this?"

His fist clenched a little, and for a split second, she thought that he was going to be angry. Anyone would, actually.

He looked at her austerely. "Why are you acting like it's nothing?"

"What?"

Giotto let out a long and weary sigh before getting up from his seat. He paced over to the hooks behind the counter and picked up his keys and jacket.

"I'll be leaving the shop to you for today G. If that's okay with you." said Giotto. G silently nodded in approval before he made his way to the kitchen to start up the pile of dishes.

"Come with me, Tsuna." said Giotto, and then he walked out the doors and into the dark street.

They walked together in the dark for a while. He took longer strides, and looked like he was in a rush to go somewhere, making her have to jog a little to keep up. There was a growing feeling of discomfort in her chest as the night grew darker. She hadn't been out this late very often, and on those rare occasions, she'd be in the joyous company of Kyoko or Haru. And when she was lucky, the both of them.

For a few minutes, she considered running off while he was busy walking on his own, but then, the blonde seemed like the athletic kind and would've probably caught up to her within a few moments. The last bus that ran by the Namimori Shopping District had already left over half an hour ago, so there wasn't any other logical way of her escaping.

Where was he taking her anyway? She paused in her thoughts when she heard him say something.

"What did you say?"

"I said that I'm sorry." he said in his gentle voice. He continued walking without turning back to face her. "You weren't supposed to hear all of that."

"Why are you saying that _now_?" She caught up to him, and he turned a corner, into a back alley. She sighed out of frustration. "Where are you taking me?"

"Usually, other Mafioso wouldn't care whether bystanders found out about their jobs. They'd just kill them before they called the police, or make them commit acts that they don't want to do, for example; they could make them kill their own friends, steal, create a commotion, and force them to buy and spread drugs. You get what I mean?"

He glanced over his shoulder at her coldly, as if he was making sure she was following him. "I'm taking you to a place where people can't see us. Watch your step here, it's a little slippery."

"Why aren't they allowed see us?" She grumbled, and followed the blonde as he got out of the other side of the alley to another dark street. "Why couldn't we stay in the shop? It's empty, isn't it?"

"It belongs to my grandfather. He was best friends with the grandfather of our enemy; before he was drugged, that is." he said. "And now his grandson sometimes sends some spies to stay on lookout. So you never know when they're watching. We couldn't do anything while we were working. We can't freak out our customers. Especially the children."

Without thinking, she opened her mouth. "Then why don't you just sell the place?"

He shot her a menacing glare, making her turn red and look away shamefully. She'd forgotten that the café was important to his grandfather.

She tightened her grip on her bag, wrapping shaky fingers around the straps. "Sorry, I didn't mean it."

He sighed, and shook his head. "No, don't apologize. I should be the one who's sorry."

He stopped once they arrived in a small open area surrounded by tall sky scrapers, where the buildings created dark shadows that overlapped each other. He took a deep breath and then turned around to face her.

She couldn't avert her eyes away from this man's face. It felt like she was staring at a picture. And for the first time, it dawned on her that this was probably what he looked like when he was around his men. A near complete contrast to his usually gentle and serene look.

"I want you to join our famiglia." He stated. "…Just temporarily."

She stared at him dumbfoundedly. "W-what for?"

He sighed impatiently. "For all the reasons I've told you."

"So you went out of your way to drag me out here to get me to become one of you?" She folded her arms stubbornly. "Why should I do that?"

"Because you'd be killed if the enemy found out about you!" He said in frustration. He grabbed her by her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Don't you understand? Why couldn't you try to figure out why I had to take you out to a place where people couldn't see us!"

"It wouldn't make a difference if they saw me." She mumbled. She was getting light headed. "Why should you care about a stranger anyway?"

"I care because you're just an innocent bystander!" His grip grew firmer on her shoulders. She flinched. "You don't deserve this! Hell, nobody does. G was right. Maybe it would've been better if we had denied your job requests. I was just being selfish."

"Leave them out of this, will you?"

"That's the point." he said flatly. "I can't. I can't guarantee that you won't tell anyone. Even if you didn't, what would happen if your parents found out that their daughter was targeted by some murderer because she had overheard a single sentence. Or even just a word."

"…" She didn't know what to say. There was nothing she could say.

"See?" He exhaled wearily and said in a softer tone. "If you became one of us, then you wouldn't have to carry so much of a burden. We're not like the other Mafioso."

Really now, forcing her to become one of them _wasn't_ considered an act that Mafioso would do? She averted her gaze away from his face, and stared at the cold and hard ground.

"You're joining…" he said. "So that I- no… _we_ could protect you. We will take full responsibility over your safety. Right now, we don't have the right to do anything because we're nothing but fellow workers. It's a whole lot different when you're a part of what we do. Is that not a good enough reason?"

She stared blankly at his face. What kind of an idiot was he, telling someone he didn't even know that well that he was going to protect her. For all she cared, a sane and normal person would've just left her alone. Nothing about this man was normal.

"Are you an idiot?" She mumbled. "Why would you want to protect someone you don't even know?"

He shrugged his shoulders light heartedly. "I don't really care if I know them or not."

"Well that's kinda stupid." She frowned. "What if one of the people you've protected turned out to be a bad guy? Or a murderer? Would you care then?"

"When that happens, we'll just have to take action against the person." He said professionally. "But from where we stand, nobody would want to mess with Vongola unless they have a great power of their own. So it's all fine."

"Hm..." She chewed on her bottom lip, and tried to move. "Um… My shoulders are starting to hurt."

"Oh, I'm sorry." He let go of her, and narrowed his eyes dubiously. "So does that mean you're in?"

She heaved a sigh, and pouted. This man wasn't giving her a choice. "Fine… Anything you say."

"Well that's settled then." He gave a slight smile, and stretched his arms above his head. "Just stay back for a while longer than Kyoko and Haru when you're working, and you can visit us anytime if you need any help with anything."

She stared at him open mouthed. "I've got to stay behind?"

"Yeah, but only to help around and stuff. We need the people." He waved a hand in the air absentmindedly and ran a hand through his blonde hair. "The only thing you need to do is to keep it a secret. Is that alright?"

He smiled and held out his hand to her. She eyed it suspiciously. If she was to shake that hand, it would mean that she agreed to whatever nonsense they asked her to do, but also a guaranteed safety from a baker and his best friend. It didn't make sense, but stuff it. Nothing did.

She took a hold of his outstretched hand and almost instinctively, it enclosed around her cold fingers. It felt warm.

"Okay, now that that's done I'll walk you home today." he said, and pulled her along with him until they left the desolated place. She staggered after him, stumbling over the dishevelled pavement.

"I-I can go home by myself."

"Don't be ridiculous." He teased, tightening his grasp. A playful smile lingered on his lips as he lead her out of the alley. "You think I'd let a girl walk home by herself when it's this dark?"

"But-"

"No 'buts'. I'm doing my job right now." He said in a stern voice. He turned a corner, and then slowed down once he realised he had no idea where he was headed. He turned around. "Where do you live, anyway?"

"...In Namimori?" She answered straightforwardly. He couldn't have been serious.

He rolled his eyes lightly. "I know that."

"Then why'd you bother asking…" She muttered disagreeably. There was no way he was going to walk her home. Or even go near that place. She turned her head to look at something other than the male in front of her. Judging by the sky, it must've been past 7.

"You're making this impossible for me, Tsuna."

No way. She didn't agree to this.

"Has this thought ever crossed your mind," She smiled sardonically. "'_Maybe she doesn't want me to take her home._'"

"…No?"

"Now you know." She yanked her hand out of his grasp and strode past him. When she heard footsteps behind her she groaned. "I've listened to what you had to say. You forced me to do something I normally wouldn't have done. Could you at least let me go home by myself?"

She could hear him give a little sigh. Something that meant; _of course not. _

That was just unfair.

"It's not fair." She said. This wasn't right. "You tell me all these things against my will and you don't let me decide things for myself."

"You think it's that easy?" He called, getting frustrated. _She _was getting frustrated. If he followed her anymore, then…

"I can get to my own house without getting lost." She said, raising her voice a little. "I'm not a child. I can get there alive." His persistency was getting annoying. She was tolerant with the other stuff he made her do, but _stalking_ her home was out of question.

He became quiet for a few seconds, and she could tell that he really was considering it. For once she could have some peace. Just what sort of hell did she have to go through?

"Just for today?" he said. She resisted the urge to scream.

"Manager…!"

"Don't call me that." He said sharply. "I won't listen to you if you do. I told you I hated it when you called me that."

Oh, to hell with it all.

"_Ieyasu-san_… Can you let me go, _please_?" She pleaded flatly. She didn't have the energy anymore. First it had to be that damn pool, and then all that stuff about Mafia, and now he won't let her go home. She was just too tired to do anything.

He grinned. "Nope."

The hell...

She clenched her fist and stalked off. She didn't bother turning around when he called her. She just hastened to get away from him. She was angry at him for being impulsive. She was angry at M.M for being such an annoying bitch. She was angry at the boys for being so inconsiderate. She was angry at herself for being so weak and disgustingly mellow.

If she was stronger, she wouldn't have had to feel any of this.

"O-oi!" He called. His voice sounded concerned and worried. Who cares, let him worry. "Tsuna!"

Her eyes widened when she felt something hot and wet run down her cheek. She stopped for a moment to wipe it away with a sleeve. This stupid habit of crying whenever she was upset was getting on her nerves.

She felt a hand grab her by the arm and jerk her back. She closed her eyes and the next thing she knew, she was locked into an embrace. She stayed there unmoving.

"I'm sorry." He apologized softly. "I went too far. I didn't mean to make you cry. I'm sorry"

His voice sounded different when she was up close. She could feel his breath blowing against the top of her hair. She could feel a heart racing- going thud, thud, thud against her chest a million times a minute. Either it was hers, or his, she couldn't tell. His shirt smelt oddly of bread and primroses. He breathed steadily, soothingly. Her tears slowed, leaving a light stream down her cheeks, until they came to an abrupt halt altogether.

"I'm sorry." he whispered. "I just… don't want you to be hurt for something that isn't your fault."

She felt his hands close in against her arms, pressing her closer towards him. It was strange. She didn't feel uncomfortable. Her anger against him melted away, and her body didn't bother resisting against the stranger who suddenly gave her a hug. Instead, it felt secure, like she had always been held like that. She felt him rest his chin against her head.

She sniffled. She didn't know why she was saying this. "…halfway..."

"Hm...?"

"I'll only let you walk me halfway…" She mumbled, and pried her way out of his strong and slender arms. "...Only this once out of a millennia though..."

He looked genuinely surprised. "Really? Didn't you start crying because I was acting like a stalker?"

"I'm not crying!" she snapped. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her sleeve to get rid of the evidence. "But you _are _acting like a stalker..."

He let out his usual chuckle. All was good. For _him _at least.

She took her time on her way back, and enjoyed the company for the first time in a while. She couldn't remember how long it had been since she had gotten the chance to. She was always by herself. They didn't talk about anything on the way back. She preferred it that way.

By the time they reach the halfway point: which was Namimori Train Station, several hundred metres away from their starting point, it was getting closer to 8pm.

"This is it. Approximately halfway." She said, and smiled hesitantly. "I'll be going, then."

"Oh… Okay." He said, then waved goodbye. "Take care, Tsuna."

She gave him a quick wave, then ran down the street as quickly as she could. Her sneakers pounded against the hard concrete as she ran. The night was dark. Too dark.

She turned down another street and jumped over a short wooden fence that bordered the community park stationed a few houses away from her own. After a few more seconds of running on soft grass and concrete, she reached the black, tall and intimidating gates she recognised so well. She fumbled in the dark for the lock, and quickly and silently lifted the metal latch.

The gates creaked a little as she pushed them open. She slid through, and locked the door as swiftly as she could. She took a deep breath. Behind the gate was a three story stone house/building with an ugly green coloured moss growing in the corners on the outside. The trees in the front yard were all dry and withered, due to the lack of care given to them by their old gardener. The only thing that reassured her neighbours that it wasn't an old and abandoned house were the lights that turned on at night.

She put her key through the brass lock and slowly opened the door. She sighed. "I'm home."

"You're _late_." screeched Haruka. Haruka was a tall and strict woman in her late 30's, who worked at the house as head servant. She tapped her foot impatiently, checked her nails, and 'tsk' 'tsk'ed at Tsuna's lateness. "It's way past dinner time. And you should know that."

"Yes, I'm sorry, Haruka-san." Tsuna said quietly.

"Your two brothers came home over half an hour ago." she continued. "Why couldn't you do the same? There's no excuse as to why you couldn't. You finish school at 3:30pm, and then you had a lot of time to come back here. Just because the Master and Mistress of this place isn't here at the moment doesn't mean you could do as you like, however you like! Do you hear me?"

"Yes, Haruka-san."

"I'm going to report this." She sniffed, and raised her nose into the air. She did that whenever she found something unnerving. "The Mistress shall hear of your inappropriate behaviour as soon as she comes back from her trip. How many times has this been already? What have you been doing? Staying out like a loose girl won't do you any good. Where have your morals gone to?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm tired." Tsuna bowed politely. "Please tell me this tomorrow, Haruka-san."

She hurried to get away from the taller woman, and ran down the hallway to the stairs which eventually led to her bedroom on the third floor. From downstairs, she could hear the badgering woman screaming, "_I'm not done with you yet_". Tsuna sighed.

"You're late again." said a voice as she passed the second floor. He leaned against the wall beside the staircase.

"I know." she replied. She was so exhausted that she didn't bother turning around to talk to him. "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight."

"Hn." His way of ''night', and then he headed off to his own room.

Once she reached her room, she slammed her door behind her, dropped her bag onto her desk chair and went to the bathroom to wash up. She came back out and then flopped right onto the bed in a white night dress. She turned off her lights, slid under the blankets and fell asleep, dreaming about a man taking her away from this place.

For good.

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><p>This space isn't meant for pointless chatter... But who cares.<p>

**Please R & R****!** I'd really appreciate it. They mean a lot. :)


	4. The Chitter Chatter of a Ladybug

**Giotto x Tsuna, Love Tokens.**

**Disclaimer: I do no own KHR, for it belongs to Akira Amano.**

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><p><em>"There's no escape for a frog in a well.<em>

_As a rock in a puddle,_

_It will forever wish for the day to be drowned, _

_Within the sorrowful rain."_

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><p><strong><em>_**_**Fourth Token/**_

_**'The Chitter-Chatter of a Ladybug'  
><strong>_

"You are _such_ a stupid girl," snarled Haruka. Her face fumed with unclassified anger and her hands pinned haughtily by her waist. The woman stood a metre away from Tsuna, towering over her while she did the dishes. "What do you think you're _doing_?"

Tsuna mentally groaned, but kept a straight face when she turned to confront her daily dose of hell - and morning headaches. "I'm cleaning up, Haruka-san."

"I'm not blind!" she snapped, bringing her hands to her chest till they folded into place. "I can see what you're doing! I'm asking you, 'what do you _think_ you're doing?'"

"I'm cleaning up." she repeated, getting back to the neglected plates in the sink. They clinked melodically as she placed them on their respectful drying racks. Or perhaps there were too many clinks.

Haruka stamped her foot impatiently, and pointed a finger at the mess in the sink. "I'm asking you, what on earth have you done to the mistress' porcelain tableware? You know your step-mother treasured it dearly."

Tsuna sighed a heavy sigh. It was only a single plate. "I _said_ I was cleaning up, Haruka-san."

"You _broke_ it?" Haruka gasped, her hand flew to her mouth. "How dareyou!"

"I didn't... break it," she replied in a small voice. Why did this woman have to come into the kitchen? If she didn't, then she would've been able to get to school and suffer there and there alone. She missed the old peaceful days from her childhood. Oh, wait... She never had them in the first place.

"Don't lie to me, girl."

"I'm not lying, Haruka-san." She said through gritted teeth. She felt Haruka's bony and dry hand connect with her cheek. She winced, and tried not to bite her own tongue. Her ears started ringing. Her headache was here.

"I said _don't lie_!" Haruka shrieked.

"I'm _not_," she protested, and resolved herself to stare into the woman's glowering eyes. "_Mukuro_ was the one who broke it. Why don't you ever go and blame him for the things that end up breaking in this house?"

She felt another slap on the same cheek. It was harder than the last, but nothing intolerable through sheer will.

"You're such a despicable, foul mouthed girl," Haruka heaved, her flat chest rising with every intake of breath. "I've always asked you to address your superiors with their honorifics! He's your older brother!"

Tsuna frowned, drawing her face into a near scowl that always ended up staying there for the rest of the day. "He's. Not. My. Brother." She said clearly and slowly.

"He's your step-mother's _son_, so of course he is, you blockhead!" Haruka was near screaming, her face a few centimetres away from hers. She could feel Haruka's breath blowing hotly against her cheek, and she forced herself to stop breathing.

"I don't... acknowledge him!" she managed to choke out, gasping for air. She backed away from the woman, leaning against the sink for dear life.

Haruka's nostrils flared, and she raised a shaking finger. "Watch it, _girl_. If you don't do as I say, I'll tell the mistress about your-"

"Quit your shouting or I'll bite you to death," threatened an icy cold voice. The both of them whipped their heads to the doorway.

"H-Hibari-sama," gasped Haruka. She quickly backed away from the brunette, and straightened her dress anxiously, her cheeks turning a grotesque shade of pink. "H-have you not yet left for the university, Hibari-sama?"

He narrowed his eyes. She was asking a blatantly meaningless question. If he was here, then for hell, he had not left. It was that obvious. He turned his head to Tsuna, who stood by the sink staring - no, glaring - at the ground with a puffy cheek.

"Come out," he ordered.

A confused look spread across Haruka's facial features, and then she tilted her head and asked in a softer voice reserved especially for the young masters. "Who, me?"

"Get out of there,_ Tsunayoshi_." He said, a hint of annoyance in his tone. His grey eyes narrowed considerably as they bored into the revolting older woman.

"W-wait a second, Hibari-sama…" Haruka stammered, grabbing a hold of Tsuna's arm like a leash. She glanced down hatefully at the brunette, the corners of her mouth twitched. "I was in the middle of scolding this girl for irresponsibly breaking your step-mother's beloved plates. You can't just… tell her to _go_."

"Who gave you permission to do that?" He asked wryly, leaning back against the doorframe. "You're just a lowly servant."

Tsuna heard the woman inhale sharply. His words took a blow right at her pride, she guessed. She couldn't help but smile a little.

"Your step mother has told me I could do as I saw fit while she was away," she sniffed, her lips thin with displeasure. Her knuckles turned white, as they gripped tighter onto Tsuna's sleeve. "I am just doing my job, Hibari-sama. If someone breaks something here, I will_ not_ just let it go."

Tsuna rolled her eyes skeptically. "Like I said, Mukuro broke it, Haruka-san," reminded Tsuna, giving her an equally ferocious glare. "I believe you're slapping the wrong person, if you want to hit someone so badly."

"It's _Mukuro-sama_!" she screamed, and brought her hand down hard against the brunette's pink cheek once again. She let go of her sleeve, letting her stumble a little. "And I'm teaching _you_ manners by hitting you."

Tsuna regained her balance before she hit the bench top and brought a hand to her cheek instinctively, soothing the fire that raged under her skin. Her eyes watered, but she fought them back by biting hard on her lip. Haruka seemed pleased with her reaction and a sadistic smile lingered on her mouth for a few seconds, before her eyes landed on the skylark.

Her bottom lip quivered, and she shook in fear as he shot her a slicing glare.

"Go to school, Tsunayoshi," he said darkly, his eyes still fixated on Haruka.

Tsuna took a step then glanced at him quickly, studying his expression for any signs of breaking loose. After a few seconds of no success, she gave in, and hurried past the woman to leave the room, feeling her cheek burn again when she moved.

"That girl has absolutely _no_ manners," Haruka murmured, shifting uneasily. She brought her hands behind her and leaned against the bench top. "…Blaming Mukuro-sama for something he didn't do…"

"I didn't ask you to speak," said Hibari, swiftly getting off of his back. He took a step and stretched. He turned over his shoulder. "Don't ever mention that name in front of me again."

Her shoulders slumped, and her jaw dropped in disbelief. "Y-you mean Mukuro-sama? _Why_, he's your brother too, isn't he?"

His eyes flashed dangerously, and his jaw tightened. There was a dangerous looking vein on his forehead. "He's not my brother," he said squarely, before he made his exit.

At the very least, her cheek didn't bother her as much as the curious stares she had gotten from the others whenever she walked down the corridors. She sat through her morning periods and took lunch break as an opportunity to get to the bathroom and check in the mirror. She gasped when she saw the bright red patch on her cheek; it was a still a little larger than what she had expected.

She turned on the tap, splashed some cold water onto her face, and patted it dry with some paper towels, inspecting the mark. She puffed her cheeks. At most, it looked as if she had rammed into a pole - a small one. It wasn't too bad. She laughed quietly to herself, and tossed the used papers into the waste bin on her way out. Things like these usually went away within half a day.

The thought was blown away and her face paled as soon as she entered the gym.

As if being slapped three times in a single morning wasn't enough, Hades had sent some more troupes to the surface to torment her. She flumped down onto the floor unhappily and sat cross-legged near the back of the excited crowd.

"Alright everybody, pick a partner!" the PE teacher boomed, flashing a wide grin. It must've been the cue for his students to become wild - for his students had started yelling and screaming at each other, trying to get the best basketball players to become their partners. It made her wonder why their school never won anything in the championships if they were so freakin' competitive.

"Hey, _come here_!"

"Be _my_ partner or-"

"Um… Kids?-"

"Sorry, he's-"

"_Hell no_, I'm not going to-"

"Hello?"

"Oi!"

"Ya wanna have a go, hah?"

"Ow- ow- ow- let go of-"

The teacher's grin faltered and he sweatdropped uncomfortably, ducking as a beach ball came flying his way.

"U-Uh, on second thought, I'll be picking your partners…" he squeaked, his voice an octave higher than usual. He ran under a table when the boys took out the boxing gloves, and he pulled out his whistle. He blew down hard and long, silencing the whole gymnasium. He crawled back out. "SIT DOWN EVERYBODY!"

They went back to their seats on the ground obediently - but reluctantly. He breathed heavily, and gruffly pulled out a clipboard from his desk. He snapped a pen open and tapped at random. He pointed a finger at the girl sitting the closest to him, then to the boy on the other side of the same row, yelling as he went, "You and you, you and you, you and you, you and you…"

He droned on and on until the whole floor was cleared of people, coming to Tsuna near the end. The whole process took less than a minute.

She went to the storage room and found herself an orange-brown ball. She didn't see who her partner was - she didn't want to, or need to -, but when she did, she tried not to make a face. God, it was hard to keep a straight face. She took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the basketball in her hand.

"Are you going to throw it, or what?" asked M.M in an annoyed tone, purple eyes narrowing until they looked like slits in a coin dispenser.

Tsuna rolled her eyes and took a step back. Having a big and fat spherical weapon in her hands seemed almost too appropriate for this scene. The perfect murder case. Just throw the ball meaning to get it into her hands, and miss and let it hit her face, with blood splattering artistically on the floorboards. She didn't even have to try for it to miss.

"Kyaaaaa!" screamed M.M. She sheltered her face with her hands. Tsuna stared at her through squinted eyes, while she watched the ball bounce by itself down the gym, intercepting with other people's passing exercises until it hit the wall and stuck itself between the teacher's desk and chair.

"You can't be serious," she muttered.

"Are you nuts, loser?" M.M screamed, her face was ghostly white, and her make-up was smudged, creating black shadows around her eyes. She jerked a thumb at her own head. "What if you had hit my million-dollar face?"

"I threw the ball like you told me to," said Tsuna. She rubbed her temples. Girls like her were just so…_ girlie_. They never touch the ball, yet bottomless remarks come flying out their mouths. She brushed her bangs out of the way. "Just chase after the damn ball, will you?"

"Yeah," M.M laughed dryly, blinking hard. She walked around in a small circle before she stopped with her red hair swaying around her face. "You order me to go out there into the battlefield with cannons flying everywhere while you do what, hah? Sit there on your throne, so that you may launch another cannon at me?"

"The ball…?"

"Nuh-uh!" she shook her head sharply, and stationed herself in the middle of nowhere, arms braced around her elbows. "_You_ go and chase your darned cannon fodder. I'll watch."

She let out a low growl. She felt her eyebrows knit together, until they met and she stormed off to retrieve the ball, leaving the smirking girl behind. It didn't really matter, cause you'd ended up being more a of a target if you stayed still for too long, anyway.

She managed to dodge the flying basketballs - to her surprise -, and nearly smiled when she reached her destination without embarrassing herself any further. The smile came on completely when she saw someone catch M.M off guard, making her leap out of the way and land on the floor with an epic tumble. The lesson was looking great so far, for once. She even bet that she could hit the redhead with the ball a couple of times.

She got up from her crouched position beside the desk and breathed out. She took a cautious step away from the table, her eyes eyeing the closest pair of enthusiastic boys. The speed at which they threw the ball was horrendous. Her eyebrows were hidden way up in her fringe, while she watched the both of them in awe.

She tightened her ponytail, placing the ball down onto the ground beside her while she did so.

"Hurry up, will you?" She heard M.M call from the other side of the gymnasium; lying like a dead soldier on the mats. She waved a lazy hand in the air, and sat cross legged in a meditating style, without a care in the world as to who could see her panties through her rolled up shorts. "My arm's going to fall off any moment now."

"Yeah, yeah," she grunted, bending back down to get the ball. She took a step too soon, and accidently kicked it away, sending it shooting down on someone else's thighs, making them topple forwards and onto their knees.

"What on earth-?" cried the black haired boy, whipping his head to search for the suspect. He searched the gymnasium with beady eyes. "Who did that?"

Tsuna flushed and looked down guiltily. She wanted to stay like that, hidden, but her body reacted when the ball rolled over and she staggered towards it, yelping when her foot got caught behind the chair leg. She felt her body fall forwards, and she stuck her hand out through pure instinct and used the kid in front of her as a support, catching herself in the last minute.

"Hey, careful!" someone yelled.

She felt someone larger crash against her, knocking her out of the way and onto the ground like it was some football field. She shut her eyes tightly, waiting for the smacking noise as she hit the ground, but instead, she heard someone's voice from beneath her.

"Ouch… That hurt..." he said, his hand rubbed the back of his head, and he slowly and effortlessly got up into a sitting position. He looked down at Tsuna with clear brown eyes. "Are you okay?"

"A-Ah, y-yes…" she stammered. She tried to get off of the male, and realised that something was holding her legs down in place. She turned her head around to find another guy lying on his face, sprawled out like some squashed spider, with his muscular arm pressing down on her leg. Nobody seemed to have noticed him though; for silent tears ran down his cheeks, creating a small puddle of slick and warm water.

He startled her by turning his head suddenly. "Can you please move so that I can get up, Yamamoto?" He asked in a hoarse whisper.

She stared at him through wide eyes, and her fingers closed around the hem of her sweater.

"Oh, sorry," laughed Yamamoto. He shifted his legs smoothly, which in turn, moved her own. He placed his hands under her arms - whether it was a natural thing to do, she had no idea - and lifted her so that she was back onto her feet. "Yosh, there we go." He grinned widely at her.

"Much better," coughed the boy, as he slowly logged himself onto his feet. His other hand grabbed a hold of the basketball and he straightened up. Nothing made _her_ feel any better.

"Can you... put me down?" she asked, trying to be polite. He did as she told, then looked at her for the second time and his expression turned hard.

"What happened to your cheek?" he asked, in a serious tone. "Did you slam your head against the ground or something?"

No, she was pretty sure that wasn't it.

"Something like that," she murmured, turning her face so that he didn't have to see it. She groaned when she saw something far too familiar skip her way. God, Hades must've hated her.

"What happened here?" M.M asked, half surprised. Her panda eyes (she hadn't noticed them) blinked innocently at the boys. Tsuna saw the other boy make a disgruntled face at the sight of the redhead. M.M didn't catch on to the kid's desperate attempt at warning her, and continued, "What happened to Tsunayoshi-_chan_?"

"Oh, nothing much," said Yamamoto, smiling brightly at the new company. M.M's face lit up with his smile, until she heard her name. "Just gotta take Tsuna to the nurse's office."

"Oh, I see." she said pleasantly. She sent the brunette a reproachful glare, and Tsuna could hear some teeth grinding together. She frowned.

"Wait," she looked at Yamamoto suspiciously. "You're taking me to the _nurse_?"

"_You're _taking her to the office?" M.M clarified, mouth hanging agape. She shrugged her shoulders sharply. "W-why I can take her there for you. You don't need to go through all that trouble. Didn't you need to practice for your game coming up, Yamamoto-san?"

"Oh," he laughed, dropping his hands suddenly. He scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. "I forgot we were doing that."

"Yeah," mentioned the boy, spinning the basketball on his finger.

M.M sighed, then smiled warmly. "That's right, so you should be practicing as much as you can whenever you can."

"Who said I was going anywhere?" grumbled Tsuna, grimacing at the idea of having anyone walk her to the nurse's office like she was a lost kitten. She shuddered.

"Well then," exhaled Yamamoto. He bent down to pick up another basketball. "I'll leave Tsuna in your hands then, panda." He returned to his original stance before he was interrupted, and started exchanging balls with his partner again.

"Yeah," she smiled. The upward curved on her mouth descended into a frighteningly curved line, as she figured out what he'd just said. She narrowed her eyes, and steadied her breathing like she was about to confront the biggest challenge of her life. She turned to the brunette madly. "He called me '_panda'_." She took a deep breath, and started again.

"And he called you_, 'Tsuna_' in that... _way _of his." M.M spat out her name like it was venomous on her tongue. A taboo. She headed for the entrance, expecting the smaller girl to follow closely behind without a single word. She laughed. "But that's only because he doesn't know who you _really_ are... But thankfully _I_ do..." She glanced back gleefully at Tsuna's widened eyes and saw fear in her chocolate orbs.

The brunette's reaction proved that she wasn't wrong, and she was on the right track. After all, they'd been in the same school ever since Tsuna started kindergarten, so she knew what the brunette was like. And that was when she started playing with that Kyoko girl Ami despised... Her eyes flickered over at Yamamoto and then at the rest of the gymnasium. She smirked, narrowing her amethyst pupils maliciously and whispered, so that only the brunette could hear her words.

"And I wonder what will happen if they find out."

* * *

><p>So, here are their ages so far:<p>

Tsuna - 16, Hibari - 19, Mukuro - 18, Giotto - 24, G. - 25, Lampo - 17, Yamamoto - 16, Haruka - 38, M.M - 16, Kyoko - 15, Haru - 16

**...-..-...**

I don't think I like Haruka very much either... O_O"... She reminds me of a bag full of out-dated soybeans... =M= and that kind of annoys me.

Please R & R!

They put a "=)" on my face every time. Oh yeah, if you see any problems, or if there is anything you don't like, please feel free to _SHOUT IT OUT INTO THE REVIEW SECTION LIKE A MAN!_ *doom*


	5. A Dainty Heart

Picking up where I left off. Happy reading!

* * *

><p><strong><em>Fifth Token/_**

**_'A Dainty Heart'_**

If such things as gods and miracles really existed, would life as the brunette knew it change? Would her world be a less difficult place to live in? Or would everything stay the same?

People weren't born to be bad but people weren't born to be good either.

If you asked anyone, they would say that it was the way the world worked with a bit of both good and bad in us, and there was nothing they could do about it. We couldn't change what we were given in life. It was meant to be. It was fate.

So if there _was _a god, then he must've be a cruel and heartless man.

That was the conclusion she had come up with a long, long, long time ago.

"Tsuuuuuuuna-san!"

Tsuna jerked out of her sweet daydreaming and looked around, alarmed that she wasn't at school- or near the said place, to be honest. Instead, she found herself amidst a sea of people in the Namimori Shopping District, about to be washed away with the crowd. She had no recollection of walking out the school gates once school had ended, let alone how she had gotten here in the first place. For all she knew she must've been sleep walking.

"Where are you going, Tsuna-san?" Haru called a second time, wondering anxiously if the brunette had heard her, for the said girl was still heading in the wrong direction. She flayed her arms around in the air and cupped her mouth. "This way, Tsuna-san! This. Way. Oi~ Over here, Tsuna! Over here~ Oi~"

Tsuna stopped suddenly, feeling her cheeks burn up as people around her paused to stare curiously at the girl who apparently had no idea where she was going - which was not true. She was headed in the_ right _direction - away from the café, and towards home because there was _no way_ she was going back to that café after what happened yesterday. How could she anyway? Not to mention Giotto's full lecture about Mafioso and when he…

"That's strange." Haru said, and then she tilted her head back to look behind her. "Giooooootto-san! Can I go out for a bit? ...Tsuna-san's outside but she's not coming in, so I'll be out for a second... You mean right now? Oh, okay." And then she disappeared back inside the shop.

Oh crap.

"Wait- Wait- Wait- Wait- Wait, Haru!" Tsuna cried, running towards the café. She stumbled over a loose pavement, cursing the damned thing as she pushed open the door, hitting something hard on the other side, and then she heard a groan. She winced, wondering if she had caused another accident, which of course, being the clumsy Tsuna she was, she did.

"Owwww!" A grumbling middle-aged man emerged from behind the door covering a _very_ bloody nose with his hand. His glasses were knocked askew and would've fallen off his head, if not for his spiky green hair. Tsuna noted that his eyebrows were furrowed so deeply that they formed a perfect 'v'. His eyes were squeezed closed, and he looked like he was about to faint until he opened his eyes. Actually, he didn't look like he was _about_ to faint. He was simply already in the process of fainting. His eyes were darting around the place, and he wobbled around unstably, having to keep an arm out to keep his balance.

"Ah…" Instinctively, Tsuna reached out a helping hand to the man, ready to catch him if he were to fall. She was in one hell of a moment here, she cursed. She scanned the room for signs of Kyoko or Haru to help her out of the mess, only to find peculiar and strange looks from the customers around her, and giggling from the younger children. Well, they found_ that _funny at least… Wait until they hit their little noses onto this door - and hah, see if they're still gonna giggle then.

"U-Um, I'm s-s-so sorry." Tsuna stammered, deciding to help the poor man in the end. "A-are you okay, sir? Do you want to sit down? I'm sorry, I really didn't mean it."

"What on earth…" The man grunted in a muffled voice. His hand fumbled for something to hold onto, and they landed, to Tsuna's horror, onto something soft, and well - squishy. "What- What is this?" He said, dazed.

The café fell silent - even the children, except for a young baby who was wailing at the back of the shop in his mother's baby stroller. She eyed the man, who peculiarly started to turn into a shade of red that complemented his hair very much. If he continued on, he might as well become the new fad for a Christmas poster.

His eyes widened, and before Tsuna even got the chance to step away from the middle-aged man, he had stumbled backwards, completely alert and stared at his hand in absolute discomfort and embarrassment. "W-whoa! Sorry." His eyes flickered over to Tsuna. "I-I didn't...! K-k-k-k-k-keep away from me!" He shrieked.

"Okay," Tsuna, bewildered - but a little insulted -, gladly complied and backed away from him with her hands up. This man was definitely going to stay single for the rest of his life, if he couldn't even touch a woman without fussing. He brought out his handkerchief, and struggled to wipe off the blood on his hands without shaking.

Just in time, Haru came back into the café in a gigantic yellow and red costume, carrying a paper knife and wooden pail, drawing the attention of most of the customers. The man took this as a chance to finally leave the commotion, and gruffly left the café, muttering unintelligibly to himself as he went.

"What's his problem?" Tsuna mumbled, straightening herself. Tsuna glanced warily over at the blonde she'd caught sight of earlier. What if he'd seen her? Would he be angry that she was late? He wasn't looking in her direction, and he was busy passing an over-enthusiastic woman her change with a subtle smile. Disappointed, Tsuna turned away.

To others in the café, he must've looked glad and interested serving that woman, and it must've depended on the angle which Tsuna saw things, but from the corner of her eye, she could've sworn that Giotto wasn't smiling at all.

After realising that the perverted uproar was over, everybody else went back to whatever they were doing - something that Tsuna was grateful for. That is, until Haru came prancing over towards her with a large, brown, and disturbingly teddy-bear-like costume in her hand. Automatically, Tsuna stiffened.

She had a bad feeling about this.

"Haru needs you to do her a favour, Tsuna-san." Haru said eagerly. Without waiting for an answer, her hands already began lining the outfit against Tsuna's petite body.

A very bad feeling.

Haru made a few squirming noises as she looked at the brunette from angles here and there. She laughed a loud 'hah', then slapped the brunette playfully on the back, beaming. "Yosh! Let's go put you inside!"

"… What?"

And… she was right.

* * *

><p>Tsuna stared wide-eyed at her bear-like reflection in the mirror.<p>

"Do I really have to wear this?" Tsuna grumbled miserably. The large paws, small button-like tail and obnoxiously large bear head which was to go right over her head all suited her perfectly. And that annoyed her. The last thing she needed was some freaky fairy magic to turn her into a stuffed animal.

"It's lovely. You look cute in it, Tsuna-san." Haru said, oblivious to the brunette's dark muttering. She stared longingly at the cute teddy bear in the mirror, giggling to herself. "I did a great job, right, Kyoko-chan?"

"Yes." Kyoko agreed cheerfully. She herself was in an alarmingly flamingo pink Power Ranger outfit. 'Such outrage!' thought Tsuna. Kyoko petted Tsuna's fur affectionately. "It's very nice~."

"Seriously?" Tsuna blew a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"With this, the outfits are done..." Haru listed carefreely, ignoring the gloomy cloud hovering over the brunette's head. She picked up a nearby pen with her Namahage hands and began scrawling in messy script on her checklist. "Next is the plot of the play. To run things over: Kyoko-chan is the hero, I'm the baddie and Tsuna-san is Namahage's subordinate. Are we clear?"

"Hai, Haru-chan!"

"Hai…" Tsuna mumbled. She gingerly picked up the bear head, and began putting it over her hair. She froze, confused. "A fluffy bear as a monster's _subordinate_? What sort of play is this, Haru? Is this meant to be a comedy - 'cause this is a joke."

"Hahi! It's a tragedy, Tsuna-san." Haru said matter-of-factly.

"And romance." Kyoko added.

"_And_ comedy?" Tsuna asked hopefully. There was absolutely no seriousness with the character designs, in her opinion. So...

"Of course not." Haru said, bopping Tsuna lightly on the head with her prop. "For today, I will be Namahage, Kyoko-chan is Knight, and Tsuna-san will be Tanuki-san."

"Hai!"

"I'm supposed to be a… raccoon?" Tsuna blinked, befuddled. She looked at the bear head again - at its large and pearly eyes that seemed to comically say, 'I'm anything but a raccoon, you bastard!' She frowned. "But I'm a teddy bear!"

"Yes, but you're Tanuki-san in the play, Tsuna-san." Haru corrected.

"But… but…" Tsuna sulked. Haru rolled her Namahage eyes, and reluctantly, Tsuna slid the rest of her head into the bear headdress. Kyoko helped tuck in a few loose strands of hair inside her suit, petted her fur once more. There was a hasty knock on the door.

"We've got 10 more minutes before we close, Haru." G said. "Are you ready yet?"

"We're a-ok, G-san!" Haru yelled, checking her reflection one last time in the mirror.

"I'm coming in, if you're all ready." G said, waltzing into the room - that's how Tsuna saw him. This costume seriously messed with her mind. "But you don't have much of an audience, are you sure about this?"

"No, it's fine," Haru said.

"They're not exactly children, either..."

"It doesn't matter. It's only a prop test."

"Alright then, off you go." G sighed, swiftly stepping aside to make way for the freak show. Haru stood in front of him expectantly, eyes gleaming. He blinked, then awkwardly scratched his head, obviously struggling to look for a compliment. "Um… You all look… great?"

His eyes tittered randomly over to Tsuna's teddy bear costume and his mouth formed a stupid smirk. He snorted, trying to stifle his laugh. "Tsuna? That is you, right?"

A teddy eyebrow twitched in annoyance. She folded her arms in defiance. "No. I'm Tanuki-san."

"A raccoon?"

"No." She said stiffly. "_Tanuki_-san."

He raised a skeptical brow. "But aren't you -…"

"She's the character, not the animal, G-san." Kyoko said sweetly, coming out from behind Tsuna. The brunette silently thanked Kyoko for siding with her anddefending her case - which in this case, was a sad case.

G's mouth formed an 'o' as he nodded his head in slight understanding. His eyebrows however, stayed raised and perched up high on their throne, refusing to come back down. "Well, it's an awesome costume you've got there." He admitted, nodding. "Is it just me, or do you look like you're smaller than usu-?"

"No, it's just you." Tsuna interrupted curtly. But it wasn't him. One of the great wonders of Haru's costumes were that they could make someone look smaller, larger, taller, shorter, rounder and thinner when the person herself was perfectly normal. Perfectly normal, period.

"Really?" He hated it when he was wronged, and was sure that there was something strange about the teddy bear costume - he just couldn't figure it out.

"A-anyway..." Haru said quietly to herself, quickly pulling a brooding brunette along behind her.

"You're running out of time. " He ushered them on, waving a hand. He walked to the cupboards in the far corner of their break room and grabbed a new roll of paper towels. Their conversation was over.

"Come on, Tsuna-san. Walk on your own." Haru whined, shoving against the brunette's back to steady her up. "It's hard to pull you while holding a pail and knife."

Mumbling a half-hearted apology, Tsuna wobbled back onto her own feet, feeling dizzy and light headed all of a sudden. Having the costume on, it felt as if she was breathing out of a poorly ventilated mask, with a tiny and miniscule seeing hole for the eyes. Clearly, it was designed for aesthetic purposes only.

"Think positively, Tsuna-chan. You're a cute teddy bear now." Kyoko gave her a sympathetic smile and petted her once again on the head before the Power Ranger wandered off into the shop, following Haru's grand entrance as the frightful Namahage. "Let's try our best, everyone!"

"I'll try to, but I highly doubt that I can..."

* * *

><p>It was hard work.<p>

In just those 10 minutes, she'd managed to fall on her face, trip over imaginary feet and bump into puzzled customers, and yet, make everything look like it was according to script. Haru and Kyoko were beyond ecstatic that the brunette played the 'death' scene so well that they somehow did it a second time. If only they knew that she'd _really _tripped, and had stayed on the ground writhing like she was dying because she'd stubbed her toe. _Twice_... In the same spot.

"That was so fun," Haru breathed dreamily as soon as they went back inside to change. She swinged her tail playfully. "I want to do it again."

"Yeah," Kyoko smiled and removed her helmet. "Tsuna-chan did a great job today too! You were so good at dying, I thought I'd really killed you."

"Uh… Kyoko-chan?" Tsuna cleared her throat, still dressed as Tanuki-san. "It sounded kind of weird when you said it like that…"

"It did?" She turned around to help Tsuna out of the bear costume, and carefully pulled the zipper down far enough for the brunette to climb out. She nuzzled her head against Tsuna's neck and giggled. "Sorry."

"It doesn't matter. So, was this play supposed to be a group project?" Tsuna untied her ponytail and shook her hair out messily. She groaned when some of her bangs stuck to her forehead, and dug into Haru's bag (a monstrously large sack) for a comb. "This seems like the sort of thing Haru would do for fun."

"It's for a school cultural festival," Kyoko and Haru replied in unison.

"Eh?"

"Yep," Kyoko smiled contentedly. She stuffed the rest of the Power Ranger suit into its bag and picked it up. "It's going to be fun - you should come, Tsuna-chan. We can show you around our school and take you to the different stalls. A lot of our classmates wanted to do a café, but we wanted to do a class play and ended up having a huge debate over it - of course, we won in the end. We're now a part of the costume committee and Haru's the president."

Haru continued on explaining things about the costumes to Tsuna while they made their way out into the hallway, carrying the large bags with them as they went. Tsuna gaped at her. "Is that why you brought your (heavy and bulky) costumes to work today? How on earth are you going to get home?"

At this, Haru grinned. "Simple: on my back like a widower, and in disguise. It's how I got here this afternoon."

"Oof…" muttered Tsuna. She could half imagine how the costume-enthusiast arrived. "You're not going to take off the Namahage costume? What if you scare someone to death? A poor old lady could have a heart attack seeing you in the streets at night!"

"Hahi!" Haru bopped Tsuna on the head. "How rude! Namahage is only frightful to children. I'm an ally to the elderly! An old man was willing to help me with directions when I got lost this afternoon. I ended up near the forest."

"How did you end up near the forest?" an amused voice asked. Three heads tuned to the sound of the voice, and eyes befell on Giotto walking out of the prep room rolling up his sleeves. Tsuna stared at him. The way he walked, the way he rolled his sleeves (he always seemed to be doing that) and the way he asked that question… He must've staged his entrance!

"I was walking, then poof!" Haru made a mini explosion with her hands. "I was in front of the forest."

"That's… interesting…" said Giotto, unsure about how he was to take it. "Were you guys on your way out?"

"Yes, we were, Giotto-san," smiled Kyoko. She looked up to the blonde shyly. "I-it was a lot of fun today, thanks for letting us practice. G-san as well."

"You're welcome!" G shouted from further inside the shop. Tsuna was shocked, that he was able to hear from so far away. Did he have supersonic ears or something?

Kyoko looked down the hall, and her look of surprise was immediately replaced with one of delight when she saw G coming out holding boxes, glad that he'd heard her. "We'll be going, then." she chimed, locking arms with Tsuna, and began dragging her off in the opposite direction, towards the door. "Let's go Tsuna-chan. We can't stay here too long because we still have to adjust your costume. It's going to be fun, fun."

Tsuna smiled at that.

Being towed away didn't sound bad at all. In fact, the brunette wouldn't have even minded all those monkey-business she'd heard yesterday and earlier on today if it meant she could have some well-deserved peace with Kyoko-chan and Haru. They could spend the rest of their evening doing whatever they wanted. For instance, they could talk about their day, the things they used to do, what they liked doing...

She dropped her smile. She didn't want to talk about their school cultural festival.

She didn't like it...

There was a burning sensation at the back of her neck, and she turned around robotically to blink at the perpetrator - the blonde with that fake smile of his.

"Sorry, Tsuna won't be able to go home with you today, Kyoko." Giotto said casually. He took the boxes from G's arms and settled them onto a table, busying himself by unwrapping them loudly with a cheerful hum. He was doing this on purpose! Tsuna decided.

The brunette continued staring. Did he expect her to do all the explaining?

"Eh?" Kyoko turned to Tsuna, with a somewhat dejected expression. "Why not?"

A stab at the heart. "U-uh…" She stuttered. "U-um… I… just can't today, sorry..."

"You didn't go home with us yesterday either."

She looked at the ground guiltily. "...That was because…"

"You still haven't heard the rest of the information regarding the event, Tsuna-chan."

This again.

"We were going to show you the rest of the costumes that Haru-chan had made for the rest of the crew. I thought you said you wanted to see them." Kyoko poked Tsuna lightly on the forehead and pouted. "Plus, you said you only wanted to do this if we were gonna do it."

"I-I wanted to take on some more hours." Tsuna lied, smiling sheepishly and hoped Kyoko wouldn't see through her lie. Another stab at her heart. "That's all."

Kyoko furrowed her brows. "Really?" Then her features lit up childishly as she thought up a splendid idea. "I know! I'll do that too so you won't feel lonely." She hopped over to Giotto, who glanced up from his work expectantly. "Can I, Giotto-san?"

He smiled warmly. "Nah, it's alright, Kyoko. There's no need for you to go through all that trouble, besides, Tsuna will be_ fine_ because there isn't much for her to do" The brunette stopped herself from rolling her eyes at his exaggerated emphasis on the word 'fine'. Sure, just leave her in the hands of mafioso and the world shall be full of daisies, sunflowers and rainbows. Her heart sank at that thought.

"But…"

"Didn't you say you had to finish off your costumes?" He reminded lightly, an attempt at changing the subject. His expression turned hard. "Haru's long gone. It wouldn't be too fair for Haru if you left all the work for her, now would it?"

"…" Kyoko's pupils widened considerably at that. "Oh-oh-oh, I almost forgot!" She bowed hastily, and turned to look apologetically at the brunette. "Next time, okay?"

"Mmm…" Tsuna waved slowly.

In a flash, Kyoko slipped on her school bag, grabbed her small bag of props and dashed out the doors, calling out Haru's name like she was looking for a lost puppy. And perhaps in her mind, she was.

Giotto gave a tired sigh, and dropped himself into a chair as soon as Kyoko's frantic voice was no longer audible. He crossed his legs and leaned back comfortably into his seat, immersing his head with the silence of the evening. He needed to rest. He frowned, now uncomfortable with the silence, and took a quick peek at the brunette, in case she too, had slipped away mysteriously. He blinked at what he saw.

Tsuna stood there in the middle of the room awkwardly; perfectly still, with her back to him.

"Are you okay, Tsuna?" He asked.

Silence. Then a small sniff.

Reluctantly, he got up and treaded over to the brunette. His expression softened when he noticed the slight trembling of her shoulders, and the muffled sniffling noises she was making. "Tsuna?" he approached. What if she was crying again… What would he…

"…"

"I know how you feel." He turned around in front of her, and closed his eyes, sighing deeply. He shook his head lightly in contemplation. He could feel her sadness. He'd upset her again... but what other choice did he have? It was dangerous. "But she can't work here after hours, Tsuna."

"You don't understand…" She murmured, and lowered her head.

"Trust me, I do..."

"You don't." she said slowly. Her mood darkened. "How _could_ you know how I feel..."

Giotto opened his eyes, taken aback by the raw edge to the brunette's tone. "You're… not sad?"

Tsuna snapped. "I'm _angry_, you baka!" She raised her head sharply. It was only by instinct and the many years he'd spent with a moody G, that the blonde managed to avoid her head butt. He stared at her incredulously, surprised by her assault.

"Why?" He demanded. "There's no reason for you to be angry."

"Well, I have a reason; I liedto _Kyoko-chan_." She cried, disheartened. She buried her head in her hands glumly and groaned. The world was over.

"So what? Lying is second to first instinct in humans. It's perfectly normal." He folded his arms and heaved. "God, I don't know what's wrong with you. That is no valid reason for you to be angry at yourself. Just brighten up like a normal girl, why don't you."

"You think I'm angry at myself? No, no, no." She shook her head forlornly. "I'm angry at YOU!" The brunette jabbed a pale finger at his chest, and glared upwards fiercely. "Get it?"

He raised a brow. "What the hell did I do?"

"You don't even know what you did? You made me lie. That's what you did." She flipped her arms in the air, defeated by his ignorance. "If you didn't open your mouth, Kyoko-chan never would've asked, and I never would've lied."

Giotto rolled his eyes. "She would've asked even if I didn't say anything."

"No, she wouldn't." Tsuna defended. "She's not like that."

He made a face. "Did you even _see _the way she was holding onto you? It was as if she was a padlock."

She eyed him suspiciously. "What, you jealous?"

"Pfft." He snorted, and cough-laughed behind his hand. Him, _jealous_? Naw. That wasn't possible. A boss like him could never be jealous, or lose to another person. Especially a girl.

She suddenly smiled, and giggled.

He sobered up. "W-what?"

"Are you sure?" She pressed. "She's reaaally soft, you know?"

"Oi. I'm not going to have this conversation with you, Tsuna." He sighed, and ruffled her hair roughly with his right hand. He chuckled when she fought against him, trying to pry his fingers off of her head like it was some giant spider. If only she had a bug spray with her... "And why do you care about Sasagawa Kyoko so much?"

The brunette finally managed to wrestle her head out of his grasp, and stopped to cock her head to the side. "Can't I?"

"I'm not saying you can't - it's just... unhealthy."

She scrutinised at his expression. "… Explain."

"You treat her as if she's another life form. Like she's always twinkling, and you're just standing down on earth observing with a net, trying to catch her. You won't accomplish anything like that. Her world doesn't evolve around you, and yours won't begin or end with Sasagawa either. Fate isn't laid out by some god or random deity. It changes every time you do something new or change your mind, so don't act as if you were born to look after Sasagawa. She can do that herself, and like wise."

Tsuna stood staring silently with her jaw open. "What on earth did you say?"

"I just explained everything!" He looked at her incredulously and twitched. "Weren't you listening at all? How could you be so cruel - I nearly ran out of breath trying to say all that, and you ask me,_ 'What did you say?'._ The least you could've done was listen. Now, I just feel like an idiot."

"B-b-but…" She blushed, and scratched her cheek sheepishly. "I-I won't understand anything if you go so fast... It's not fair for me… S-so can you please explain everything again in… something more… my speed?"

"…" He turned away and covered his face. His voice was muffled by his hand so she couldn't hear what he said. She grew anxious.

"Will you, please?" Tsuna whined, and tugged on his sleeves. "I'm _worrying_ here."

Giotto cleared his throat. "All I'm saying is that you need to STOP worrying." He said simply. That should do the trick.

She narrowed her eyes at him, disbelieving. "That's it?"

He nodded and smiled tentatively.

"Then what the hell was that about twinkly stuff, and gods and Kyoko-chan?" She cried. Exasperated, she thumped her hand down hard on his chest, and he winced at the impact. That hurt. "Why would you talk gibberish? Are you making fun of me? You could've just said 'Stop worrying!' from the start - was that so hard?"

He squeezed his eyes together and a vein pulsed on his forehead. "I'm trying to tell you to stop caring about Sasagawa, and worry about yourself a little more! You lied to her, so what? It's not like as if she's your only friend, is she? You've got Miura as well, and some others..."

"But I hardly see them…" She admitted miserably. "And they're so busy doing their own things to the point where I'm starting to feel lonely…"

"Then go to their school festival and have fun there." He suggested. "That should solve everything."

"No, it doesn't."

"And why not?"

"Because I can't go." Tsuna said quietly. "I'm not allowed to."

The blonde raised a brow. "If your parents don't let you, then how about spending that day with some other friends? I'm sure you'd have other people to hang out with."

She puffed out her cheeks and looked away silently.

He froze. "You… don't have any friends at your school, do you?"

She flushed. "S-so what? You going to make fun of me again?"

"Ah geez, Tsuna… Why would I do that? That would be cruel. I'm sure there are nice people out there." He craned his neck. "I'm sure you'd be able to make a few friends if you tried. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't want to be friends with you."

Tsuna stared up at him with adorably large eyes. "Really?"

He froze, perplexed with her innocent expression. "Y-yeah, sure."

The brunette stared at him for a while longer, before she sighed heavily and shook her head. "Nah… I don't think they would…"

He face palmed. "Do I have to ask why again?"

"No." She smiled into the distance. "They just won't."

"Stop demoting yourself." Giotto flicked her lightly on the forehead. "I hate it when people do that."

"…I'm sorry."

"Look, there could be someone under this roof who would like to be your friend." He said, hinting. "And they would be sad if you told them you didn't."

"…" The brunette listened carefully at the words she didn't deserve, and her stomach churned at the very thought of it being a pretence. She wanted to accept them, and believe that he wouldn't lie to her.

"I'll be your friend." a voice stated in a monotone.

Tsuna whipped around, and came face-to-face with a bored looking G sitting on a chair, resting his head mightily on the back rest. "...G-san? W-when did you…?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." He waved a hand. smirking. "Giotto's speech was so touching that I had to sit down to enjoy it. Wouldn't wanna miss the look on his face, you see."

Giotto narrowed his eyes. "What are you saying, G?"

"Here, I'll show you." The red head got out of his chair and feigned a calm but yet determined expression in a dramatic fashion, clutching his chest. _"Oh, other people would want to be your friend too, Tsuna..."_

Tsuna smiled at his exaggerated re-enactment of Giotto's purity - or so he called it.

Giotto rolled his eyes and grumbled. "I was_ not_ like that." He looked childish.

G broke into a raucous laughter, clutching his sides. "See? That's what I'm talking about. Here watch this, Tsuna." He cleared his throat and gently cupped the brunette's cheek. "Will you be my friend?"

Tsuna blushed, embarrassed - but happy. She nodded her head bashfully and accepted his invitation. Giotto glared darkly at the permanently-smirking redhead and sent out as many evil vibes as he could muster, to curse him for making a move on Tsuna before he did. Especially when _he _was the one who came up with this brilliant idea. He hoped those vibes could finally set the temperamental guy on fire.

He shoved G out of the way, and faced the startled brunette with a pleasant smile. "So, Tsunayoshi… Would you like to be my friend?"

She furrowed her brows and considered the answer carefully. "...I don't know."

He gaped at her. He couldn't believe this was happening. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"W-well… you _are_ my manager… and… you are… a mafia don…" She blushed and twiddled with her thumbs. She looked down at the ground again. "And it wouldn't feel right to me."

"Whaaaaaat?"

G balled over. "See? Isn't he fun to tease, Tsuna?"

Tsuna's blush deepened, and she mumbled an apology.

"Geez…" Giotto sighed and calmed down. "It's not like as if a boss can't be friends with his subordinates… Weren't you friends with Namahage-sama while you were acting as Tanuki-san, Tsuna?"

"But that was in a play, and I was a bear so it didn't count." She retorted, crossing her arms.

"Will you consider it, though?" He asked honestly, smiling lightly, looking hopeful.

"I'll think about it." She decided, and her eyes fell on the boxes G and Giotto had carried in, half unpacked. "Are you unpacking packages?"

"Those boxes?" Giotto's head turned in the said direction, and he treaded lightly over to them to continue with his task. "They arrived by air mail this morning, and we were trying to sort them out. We can't leave until we finish them, you see?"

"Oh…" Tsuna mouthed, nodding. "Then is there something you want me to do?"

"Uh… we should have a few more boxes in the back storage room…" Giotto named, staring out into space to remember the rest. "So I guess we could-"

"I unpacked those already." G reported. "You took forever, so I did them by myself."

"Oh, thanks." Giotto blinked, then turned back to Tsuna with a weak smile. "Looks like you didn't have to stay behind today…"

"Really? I'm going home, then." Tsuna announced brightly, and lifted her bag off the ground feeling strangely refreshed. She didn't even care about how dark the sky looked. For all she knew, Haruka could yap her head off however she wanted. She left the shop in a good mood, for the first time in what seemed like ages.

God was cruel.

He'd given her hope.

A flame.

A small flame that could've been blown out in the slightest motion.

Yet, no matter what..

There was something that told her to take on this small piece of hope. To protect it. To believe in it. She wanted to believe, that no matter how dark her nights were... How dreary her dreams seemed… This flame would be there for her, and it would brighten up her world, more than anything...

... And heal her dainty heart.

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><p><strong>Please R &amp; R!<strong>

Feel free to give me a piece of your mind, regarding this chapter! :) I accept all, and am glad, like any other author.

- Thx to my Beta as well, for staying up late to edit this.


	6. The Pineapple Flavoured Mango Pudding

**A/N:** Okay, I'll try to make the chapters a lil' longer from now on. I've read over these past chapters, and it hit me that not only were they short, but they were kinda... wonky... in a way... . ... And I had no confidence in this story. (maybe that's why i have so much trouble writing...) So I'm really glad that you've enjoyed it so far, with my poor skills as a ff writer. I remember that I mentioned sometime last year that I was writing to improve, well... This, my friends, is where the improvement starts. _  
><em>

**_Italics -_ Like in Ch.2, this chap has got** _flashbacks_**.**

I can now sincerely say, enjoy your reading! :)

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><p><em>"Everything had already ended, <em>

_Long before it started." - C.M. Lennii_

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><p><em><strong> Sixth Token /**_

_**'The Pineapple Flavoured Mango Pudding'**_

_The brunette was sitting in the corner of the room looking out the window at the sky that hanged over their heads, when Kyoko first decided to talk to her saviour. The orangette had spent a lot of weeks trying to think of how she was going to thank the brunette who helped her whenever Ami was being mean. "T-Thankyou..." Kyoko said timidly, and looked for her guts. Nope: they weren't here._

_Tsuna turned her head and Kyoko tensed, ready to hide behind one of the classmates she had brought along in case the brunette wasn't in the right mood. Kyoko had to admit, she could be… scary… sometimes… like how she just sat in the corner of the room silently without bothering with the rest of the class, as if she wasn't one of them. In a way, there was always something 'mature' and 'unchild-like' about this girl which made her so abnormal._

_Kyoko gulped and approached the brunette again, whose eyes dilated suddenly at the sight of the two girls. This sent a jolt down Kyoko's spine and for the first time, she'd found the courage to say something. If not, she was now eager to talk to the brunette, and perhaps at the prospects of becoming friends. "T-thankyou Sawada-chan!" Kyoko repeated, allowing a small smile to appear on her face. "You're always helping me." _

_Tsuna continued staring at her with widened eyes of astonishment. The brunette's expression reminded Kyoko of the lost kitten she'd found when her family went out on a picnic, and she couldn't help but let out a small giggle. "Mama said that I need to say thankyou." _

_"…Oh…" Tsuna said._

_"You're so strong, Sawada-chan. " Kyoko said. "My brother goes to a dojo, and he's really strong too. Do you go to a dojo, Sawada-chan?" _

_"…No…" _

_"You don't? Then how can you fight against Ami-chan when she's so mean? You're incredible." Kyoko said, sighing. "I-I'm scared of so many things. That's why everyone's mean to me and I don't like it."_

_"Heh," Kyoko's friend grumbled and made a sour face. "You should try having Ami as a sister. I don't like it either, but my mum makes me listen to what she says just because she's older than me, even though we're twins. It's not fair at all."_

_"You're twins? Wow, that's amazing!" Kyoko said. "I wish I had a twin, but I love my brother as well. We've never had fights." She turned to the brunette with curious eyes. "Do you have any siblings, Sawada-chan?" _

_"…I-I'm an only child…" The brunette replied, a little tentatively. _

_"Your parents must really love you, then." Kyoko's friend said and she slid down into a chair. "You're so lucky. I wish that I was an only child like you. It's so annoying for me, because my parents only look at Ami and hardly ever spare a glance my way.. It must be nice to have the attention of both of your parents."_

_"...I don't know…" Tsuna said, as she turned away to stare out the window at one of the white and puffy clouds floating far away. "My stepfather just remarried last year, so I've got a new mother." _

_"You mean like what happens in fairy tales?" Kyoko said, only hearing the 'new mother' part. That was the first time she'd heard of anyone having a stepmother. Her eyes shone with delight and she clasped onto Tsuna's hands. "That is so cool, Sawada-chan. Did she bring any children with her? Do you have any step siblings now?" _

_Tsuna furrowed her brows into a deep scowl, sending another jolt down Kyoko's spine but this time it was a different kind. The fear that was absent before had come back and she let go of the brunette's hands as if an electric shock had pulsed through her fingers. Her lips trembled and she backed away from Tsuna to hide behind her friend. _

_"It's not 'cool'." Tsuna said, glaring out the window. "My 'mother' died, and my stepfather quickly replaced her with a stranger I've never seen before. It's not cool at all!"_

_That was when Kyoko burst into tears. _

_Startled, Tsuna immediately tried to soften her expression but failed when Kyoko's friend pulled a face at her. "Why are you crying? I didn't do anything to you. Crying won't solve anything, so stop. Please." Tsuna said, her voice straining. _

_"D-don't yell at me like t-that!" Kyoko hiccupped and scrubbed at her eyes until her whole face was red. "I-I told you that I was a scaredy-cat. I don't like it when people yell." _

_"That's right, Sawada." Kyoko's friend puffed out her chest and stood up from her chair, to look down at the brunette and defend the crying girl behind her. "If you bully Kyoko-chan anymore you're just gonna be like Ami. And I don't like people like Ami." She added._

_Tsuna grumbled, but relaxed her brows. "I'm sorry. I won't be loud anymore."_

_"Good." Kyoko's friend said. "Now, that's much better." _

_"I-I'm sorry for saying that it was c-cool that your p-papa's getting remarried…" Kyoko said, slowing to an occasional sniffle. "A-And I'm sorry about your mama. It wasn't nice for me to say that it was cool."_

_"...It's okay." Tsuna said. _

_"It must've been sad," Kyoko said, tearing up again at the thought of her own mother bring replaced. "I'd want my mama to be my only mama, and I wouldn't want my papa to fall in love with another woman either. I would've cried if my papa _did_ remarry. Did you cry, Sawada-san?"_

_"…There's no use in crying." Tsuna said, looking down at the ground. "Nothing would've changed even if I did. Besides, my stepfather didn't like it whenever I cried, so I try not to. He says that people who cry are weak." _

_Even though Tsuna was saying this, with the way she looked at the ground, to Kyoko, she looked as if she was gonna cry - which was a silly idea because there was no way she could. "… Um- b-but you're strong." Kyoko said. "Y-you're just like Poh from Superpoh!" _

_"That show's boring." Kyoko's friend said. "My mum said that it's fake." _

_"I don't care!" Kyoko said, covering her ears with her hands. "I love Poh! And I like you too Sawada-chan because you saved me!" _

_"I don't like Poh!" Kyoko's friend exclaimed._

_"I love Poh!" _

_"I don't like him at all!" _

_"I love him!" Kyoko screamed, piercing their ears. "You like him too, don't you Sawada-chan?" _

_Tsuna stared at Kyoko with a blank expression. She had no idea who this 'Poh' was, but she was sure that if she _did _know she wouldn't like him very much either. He sounded like some cheesy super hero - his name sounded so funny too. _

_"My brother says that more and more children are watching Superpoh, and that it's a good thing because it teaches us good from bad!" Kyoko stated. "That's why I really like him. He's _everyone's _favourite, Sawada-chan!"_

_"It's Tsunayoshi."_

_"Huh?" Kyoko said._

_"M-my name… " Tsuna said, blushing slightly. "You can call me Tsunayoshi."_

_"Tsunayoshi?" Kyoko said, testing out the name. "Eh? But it's so long! I'll just call you Tsuna-chan, ne?"_

_"Ts-Tsuna-chan?" Tsuna stuttered. "B-but isn't that… a little too short?" _

_"My name's Kyoko and it only has 2 syllables, too." Kyoko said. "Nearly everyone's name has 2 syllables."_

_"T-then…" Tsuna wrinkled her brows. "U-um… Kyoko...-chan…?"_

_"Your name is really pretty," Kyoko said, before she turned to her friend for a second opinion. "Isn't it, -"_

"-Are you deliberately trying to ignore me, Sawada?" Dohachiro-sensei asked in a low tone, popping her bubble. He stood over her desk scowling, and then squinted his already small eyes. Tsuna blinked at him unsurely, to which a vein popped on his forehead.

"..."

"You weren't listening to me at all," he said, and fervently rolled up the book he was clutching in his hands. Tsuna's eyes fell on the book. He sighed deeply as if teaching was a chore. "You hate science." Then he turned around to face the rest of the class. "You all hate science," he proclaimed, flipping his arms high into the air, and glumly strode back to the middle of the classroom where he had started his lesson. He shook his head. "That's because you students don't get it. You're all naïve. You have no idea about what's ahead of you! You don't know the_ troubles_ ahead of you! The tests! The exams! You're all going to fail! You're all going to lead hopeless lives! You're all going to die lonely! You'll never succeed in life! So why not waste a few minutes and listen to me?"

"Sensei," A boy from the back of the classroom raised his hand to speak. "I've got a question."

"Shush- shush- shush-shush!" Dohachiro hissed, pointing a wrinkly finger in the boy's direction. "You need to listen when a great mind is speaking. You should all learn from the greatness of myself, and perhaps one day you'll be able to become someone worthy of being my assistant. I've always wanted someone smart, and none of you here are worthy of it."

Dohachiro-sensei's lessons were so boring that listening to the old man talk had become a somewhat sleep-inducing, which was what caused Tsuna to fall asleep. She'd dreamt about the past- something that hadn't happened before. A double period of science was torture, even if she did get the chance to fall asleep halfway through. Tsuna found that she was paying more attention to the low rumbles in the distance, than to what the teacher was saying himself.

Tsuna withheld a low grumble and soon ended up playing listlessly with her eraser, drawing a 'yes' and a 'no' on the sides, then rolled it around as she asked herself questions. Most of which consisting of variations to the _Will it stop raining soon? _With 90% of her answers turning out to be 'no'- and she was glad.

"-brings to mind your test results from the start of term." Dohachiro said, and he pushed his glasses up with a finger. "I am deeply disappointed in you all. Deeeeeply disappointed. Very, indeed. I don't even know where to start." He cleared his throat. "Especially in you 12; Namikawa, Yoshida, Longchamp, Kawa…" He continued, raising his voice with each passing name that annoyed him.

_Will he call my name_? Tsuna flicked her hand and rolled the eraser.

_'Ye-'_

"-and Sawada!" he shouted, already purple in the face. He turned in her direction again, with eyes bulging with contempt. Tsuna shrunk into her seat, frowning at the way he called out her name and drew the attention of the rest of the class. From amidst the pairs of eyes she'd spotted the gleam in M.M's amethyst pupils - clearly enjoying herself with the treatment Tsuna was receiving. Dohachiro pointed with a shaking hand. "Especially you, Sawada! You've scored the lowest in the class, and you are by far, the most difficult student I have ever taught. You are the perfect example of a failure student. I don't want any doppelgangers of your behaviour - and that's why you're _all _going to do the next exam in groups!"

"YESSS!" The same guy from the back cheered, and leaped out of his seat to fist pump the air. He never noticed the girls edging away from him as they kept on with their own business, pretending that the loud guy never existed.

"It's too early to rejoice because I'll be picking your groups, Longchamp." Dohachiro-sensei said, feeling a sudden dislike for this boy who kept interrupting him. He took out his prepared lists. "I've picked out the perfect groups to enhance your learning capabilities. You can trust in my judgement.."

The class groaned at this. Rumour had it that Dohachiro-sensei had the _worst_ judgement in picking groups, and didn't care about his students at all other than their grades and his reputation as their teacher. This rumour turned out to be true, as everybody else had come to realise that they had been placed into a group of 3 other people they've either never even seen or spoken to, have disliked, or never understood. In this respect, Tsuna found herself in a group of 2 people - herself included. Apparently the third person in their group was sickly and a nerdy four-eyes who somehow ended up in hospital before school even started. The poor geek.

The second person was Yamamoto. Coincidence or not? Tsuna had been seeing this guy's face all over school and in most of her classes that she found it almost irritating that her freshman life involved one of the few people she wanted to avoid for the rest of her schooling years. Who would want to be friends with a popular, good-looking athlete and earn themselves a truck load of hate filled fans wanting to torment you? So anyway, this nerd was so smart that they were the only group of 3, when it was supposed to be a 4-man project, and now that the nerd wasn't even here they ended being the only group of 2. Sad, isn't it?

"Hey," Yamamoto greeted cheerfully. He dragged his chair to the other side of Tsuna's small desk and sat down. "Looks like we're partners, eh?" He laughed and placed his arms onto her desk, grinning at the small stick doodles she'd drawn in the corner of her page. "Haha, you're pretty good at drawing." He was referring to her stick man who was supposed to be hanging himself, with a few messy rope loops here and there, until she could no longer tell what she had drawn in the first place. "That's a nice flower you've drawn."

This guy was also freakishly positive, Tsuna discovered.

"Looks like it's just the two of us." Yamamoto said, looking around the classroom at the other groups who have settled into miserable huddles of… misery. All of a sudden, everybody looked like the stick man she'd drawn on her page. "Well, d'ya have any idea as to what we're doing? 'Cause I wasn't listening."

"… I wasn't... either…" Tsuna said bluntly. "He just told us that we had to group up."

Yamamoto scratched his head. "So we're a lost case, eh? Looks like the rumour about Dohachiro's poor judgement skills was correct after all. You can always count on the guy to screw things up."

Tsuna looked up from her page of scribbles quizzically. "What do you mean by that?"

"I was in his bottom 12," Yamamoto pointed out, still smiling. He was acting as if it was something to be proud of. "He wanted to smarten us up by putting us into groups with smart people so we'd learn better, I guess. That's all I got from what he said."

"… But I'm one of his bottom 12 too…" Tsuna said, confused. "There's no way I'd understand anything he teaches, so I'm pretty much useless in any sorts of group work - in other words, please don't count on me."

"Haha, I'm kinda the same," Yamamoto said, leaning back into his seat relaxingly, completely okay with the way things turned out - even if it meant he might not see a passing mark on his sheet in the next exam. At least, that's what Tsuna had thought her outcome would turn out. A big, fat, ugly, zero.

Dohachiro then came around handing out sheets of paper full of tiny, tiny, tiny, font one would need magnifying glasses to read, saying that it was their exam criteria. Then he stumbled upon the sad two. His expression was suspicious. "How'd you end up like that?" he asked rudely.

"Looks like our third isn't here, sensei." Yamamoto said, taking the paper from the man's hands. "Did you forget to check the absentee list?"

"D-Don't be absurd!" Dohachiro blubbered, turning a shade of purple. He'd forgotten, alright. "O-of course I did!" His glasses fogged up as he said this, and he removed them to wipe them with a cleaning cloth, revealing extremely small and squinty eyes. Without those glasses, he didn't look so smart.

"How are we supposed to do our work if it's just the two of us, sensei?"

"Y-You'll just have to manage." Dohachiro said, sliding his glasses back on. He cleared his throat. "It's inevitable that I have students who will be failing, but so long as the rest are doing fine then my award- I mean, the class rankings will be fine." He glanced down at Tsuna from the tip of his nose, and made a face at the page full of random lines and circles. "What are you _drawing_?" He shrieked, pointing at her lovely doodle of two stick men fighting. Apparently, the dotted circles she'd drawn must've seemed quite… wrong, as his face turned a deep plum colour. He shuddered. "Yes, definitely. You're both going to fail. Your only hope is to wait for your third to come back, but I guess that won't be anytime soon. You're definitely failing, Tsunayoshi Sawada!"

Tsuna's grip around her pencil tightened at that comment of his, and there was a sudden urge to kick the guy in his balls and shut him up. It wasn't her fault her stick figures looked… funny. As soon as Dohachiro turned around, she stuck her tongue out and made a face, amusing the raven-haired boy beside her.

"That stupid teacher," Tsuna mumbled, now scrutinizing at her doodles. How dare he criticise them. He probably couldn't even draw. She gave out an exasperated sigh, then violently ripped out the page, and began scrunching it into a ball. She was stopped by Yamamoto.

"Hey, hey!" Yamamoto said, startled by her rigged actions. He took the piece of paper out of her palm before it reached the point of complete destruction. "What are you doing? Your drawings were nice."

Tsuna frowned. "They're just doodles." Plus, she wanted to throw it at the back of Dohachiro's head.

"But I liked them, so you can't throw them out. You could at least give them to me, ya know." Yamamoto said, quickly folding the piece of paper and stashing it away in his pocket. He grinned broadly at her disbelieving expression. "There, now you can't do anything about it."

"You're weird." Tsuna decided. His grin - if possible - grew broader.

"Same goes for you, Tsuna." Yamamoto said, stretching in his seat. "Ya know, you're not that difficult to approach. I don't understand why you're always by yourself."

Tsuna straightened out her books. "I prefer solitude."

Yamamoto raised a brow. "Isn't that kind of boring, though?"

"Not really."

"Really?" Yamamoto said, stroking his chin. "Maybe I should try that one day."

Him? By himself? Tsuna hid her scoff at this. Unlikely.

Yamamoto leaned back onto the desk and settled down to look at the sheet of paper in his hands. None of the both of them had any idea as to what they were doing, and neither wanted to or could understand what the small print was trying to say. Everything was alien to them. Well, at least she was no longer the only idiot.

Dohachiro-sensei came strolling back to them (still looking a little flushed), with a slightly hopeful expression on his face. "Well, well, if it isn't the hopeless duo." He said, propping his hands on his hips like a woman. He smiled bravely at the both of them, as if he had figured out the solution to _all _their problems. "Trust in my capability to solve all the problems in this classroom and beyond, for nothing can stop my talent. Even a case like yours has been solved. I will no longer have any stupid and brainless idiots in my class, from now on, as you _will _be having a third in your group. And a fourth." He stepped aside to reveal the last member of their group. "Alright, now Fourth, please introduce yourself to the rest of your team."

Tsuna wasn't sure if she had put any expression on her face when she saw her fourth. Acting like a goody-goody in front of Dohachiro-sensei was none other than M.M, who had by all possible means, ditched her previous group and presented herself to sensei as a suitable fourth for their group. On M.M's mouth was a small smile, which Tsuna had assumed was directed at Yamamoto, seeing that the redhead had had a crush on the base baller ever since they started high school.

"Go on," Dohachiro urged, eager for things to get moving. He gave M.M a little push on the back, and the redhead's smile only grew wider, revealing her teeth.

"Hello, Tsunayoshi-chan, Yamamoto-san. I am your fourth." M.M said in a light voice, before she bowed politely, earning a rather proud nod from Dohachiro-sensei. He chuckled deeply behind her, sounding rather creepy. "I'm looking forward to working with you. Let's make this a fun group, yeah?"

Tsuna ignored her and looked away silently, settling her eyes on one of the groups. They had 3 people and they all looked like the black plague had come to kill them. One of them kept muttering ' why, why, why, why.' while another was saying 'we're doomed', over and over. The last just sat there as if his soul had escaped his body. Strangely, Tsuna shared their pain - those were exactly her thoughts right now.

"-M.M achieved the second highest score in class," Dohachiro boasted, his bowl of pride filled to the brim - nearly overflowing. "Work well. I expect good results from you guys. You have both the dumbest, and the smartest in your group, but I expect the both of you to turn over a new leaf and work hard. M.M's here to guide you."

"Welcome aboard," Yamamoto greeted, smiling brightly at their new crew member. "You're gonna be a great help." M.M's eyes glazed, and she returned a timid smile, out of embarrassment, but happiness - if that was possible with someone like M.M. She stood pigeon toed and fidgeted with her fingers for a while, stealing glances here and there at Yamamoto. It wasn't long before Dohachiro-sensei became bored, and wandered off to find another group of failing students.

The only reason Tsuna could come up with as to why M.M would want to join their group would be : Yamamoto. Oh, and because the world was ending and they were all going to die horrible, horrible, deaths. No surprise there, that Science was now her least favourite subject. Who would need something like group work?

M.M dragged one of the chairs from another group and pulled it right up beside Yamamoto's, where she took her seat. "So what are you doing?" she asked, leaning over the desk to stare at Yamamoto. "Have you thought about your topic yet?"

"Topic? What topic?" Yamamoto asked, skimming through the small print of the sheet with a slight wrinkle between his brows.

"You're supposed to pick a topic, Yamamoto-san," M.M giggled. She reached over to point at one of the lines on the top of the page. "_Students are to conduct an experiment_… here, you can pick your topic - they've given you a list."

Yamamoto followed her finger. "Ah, I see now." He said, grinning at the sheet of paper and the myriad of words the brunette still couldn't comprehend. "Hey, Tsuna. What do you want to do? There are sea creatures, insects, plants, rocks, the Earth's atmosphere…"

Tsuna tried to follow. "Um… how about plan-"

"Sea creatures!" M.M said abruptly, and then she circled the topic with a red pen on all their sheets. "We're doing sea creatures! Is that alright, Yamamoto-san?"

Yamamoto looked surprised. "Uh… yeah sure."

"Alright, that settles our topic." M.M said, content with her job. "Next, we need to think of our experiment…"

Tsuna's dislike for group work (except when she's with Haru or Kyoko) just grew ten-fold. For the rest of the lesson, M.M pretended the brunette was non-existent and as if she her only other group member was Yamamoto_. 'I'm looking forward to working with you' _her ass. If it weren't for Yamamoto asking Tsuna some questions and trying to get her more involved, she wouldn't have had any idea as to what their conversation was about. Occasionally, Yamamoto would lean over and scrawl some notes that he'd learned from the redhead onto Tsuna's page - something she never asked and wanted him to do, but every time he did so, M.M would scowl and mutter something under her breath, and try to get him back to talking about the things _she_ was interested in.

The lesson ended when the lunch bell rang, and all Tsuna understood out of the sheet of paper was the fact that it had been covered in writing, they were doing an experiment on sea creatures, and that there was no way for her to receive a passing mark for Science.

She hoped that their third wouldn't be as bad as M.M, but her eraser told her otherwise.

* * *

><p>Lunch-<p>

-oh, glorious lunch.

One of the few times of the day where Tsuna was allowed her long sought after solitude at school, away from other people. This thought was soiled by the rain pouring nonsensically down against the windows, purging the idea right out of her head and down the drain, where it was washed away. They were to stay indoors. Everyone around her was loud - talkative. They all had something to share to their friends and it wasn't hard to miss the few mentions on a School Cultural Festival happening tomorrow.

"Are you going?" Yamamoto asked.

Tsuna looked up from her convenience store bento and at the guy who just asked her that question. "...No." she said, even though she really wanted to.

"Oh, that's too bad." Yamamoto said, evidently disappointed. He'd gone out to grab a drink from one of the vending machines, and had just come back to reclaim his seat on the other side of her desk. Tsuna continued chewing on her food. "They say it's going to be fun this year. Dunno how that'll work out with the rain, though. The grounds will be wet," he said. His hands worked on the lid of his bottle absent-mindedly as he stared out the window, frowning at the dark clouds surrounding their school and the low rumble of thunder.

"It's summer," Tsuna said, stating the obvious. "Of course it'll rain."

"Hey you never know, it might ease up a little by then," Yamamoto laughed, downing half his bottle in one go. "Ahhh~ That was good." He grinned, then screwed the cap back on. He fished into his bag and pulled out an onigiri. "They've put in a lot of effort for this year's fest." he said.

That was true. It would've been a shame for the festival to be called off after Haru had gone out of her way and spent so many long hours trying to finish the costumes. For the past few days everyone at the café was in festival-mode, with Haru bringing in a whole assortment of things: signs in hypnotising colours and patterns, eccentric clothes that looked way too detailed and more furry suits. She had everyone in the building to help out with perfecting the lines in her play, laughing off her lousy reception with, "This means we need more improvement!", and then she'd lock herself in the break room for a good 10 minutes, before the whole process repeated once again.

Kyoko was justas spirited as Haru was about the festival that she'd borrowed one of her brother's boxing mitts and had put them on while she helped Haru with her lines, being extravagantly active that it was almost frightening to see such a delicate and sweet girl like the orangette trying to be tough and fierce, as she was the hero in the story.

"Their theme for the fest this year is 'What I would want at an Amusement Park'," Yamamoto said, between mouthfuls of rice. He licked his thumb. "I've got a buddy who goes to that school and he told me that their drama club is putting on a _really_ awesome play."

Yes, they were.

"Hey- why are you telling me these?" Tsuna asked, bemused that someone like _him _was discussing another school's festival with someone like_ her_. She really had no idea why he still wanted to talk to her, even though science class had already ended a good while ago. "And, why are you sitting here at my desk? Wouldn't you want to sit with your other baseball buddies over there?" She nudged her head at the few boys who were had stopped in scoffing down their food to stare in their direction. Yamamoto turned around to give them a wave.

"I'm here 'cause I want to be." Yamamoto said, grinning as he leant on his elbow. "You're kinda fun to be around, Tsuna."

She didn't know how to respond to that. Of all the words in her vocabulary, she'd never, never, never, never and never describe herself as someone 'fun'. The closest she'd say would be the word 'comical'. "H-how?"

"I dunno," Yamamoto shrugged his shoulders. "I just find you fun. Like, would 'ya know how you ended up being a girl? You don't, right? You just are."

Tsuna picked at her last egg roll. "I think I _would_ know how I ended up as a girl…" she mumbled, then put the egg roll into her mouth. The sweetness of it spread on her palette, hitting the right spots. She never had a sweet tooth, but there were certain foods she enjoyed with a little sweetness in them - and this particular egg roll did its job. She gave herself a mental note to remember where she'd bought that bento box.

"Tsunayoshi?" A girl called from the sliding doors. "I-is there a Tsunayoshi in this class?"

Tsuna turned her head towards the girl - she didn't recognise her, but there was something about the look on her face that made her slightly familiar. The last girl who came looking for her had twin tails, but this one had her hair out, and the connection that lied between the two happened to be the feverishly worried look on her face. Everyone around that person would end up sporting that look sooner or later.

"Do you know that sempai?" Yamamoto asked, opening the lid to his drink once again.

Tsuna shook her head, although she knew _why _the girl was here.

"She's over there," one of her classmates answered, curious as to what someone from another year would want from the brunette. He pointed in Tsuna's direction, and the girl's eyes followed his finger until they met with Tsuna's brown orbs. "The one next to our baseball captain."

The girl walked right up to Tsuna, and tried to smile at her. "You're Tsunayoshi Sawada, right?" she asked as nicely as she could. Her smile was so wobbly that Tsuna almost felt guilty for what was going to happen to the girl. She gave a small nod. The girl looked uncomfortable for a second, and as if she was about to cry. "Mu… Mukuro-sama wants to... see you..." she finished, before she let out a choke and stumbled back out into the hallway covering her face.

"That was… odd." Yamamoto said. "Who's this Mukuro?" He turned to face Tsuna's stone-look, and his brows furrowed. "Do you know a Mukuro, Tsuna?"

Tsuna stared after the door. "N-no, I don't…" she said robotically. Yamamoto gave her a strange look, but left it at that. She decided it was better to pretend that someone like _him _didn't exist, than acknowledge his existence and let him roam free. She stood up with a haughty scrape and trudged to the trash bin to throw her bento box away. That's right, Mukuro didn't exist and wasn't going to interfere with her school life. Her box hit the bottom of the bin with a loud clang.

"Kufufu. Who are you saying doesn't exist?" a voice whispered into her ear.

Tsuna's insides turned cold, and froze at the sound of his smooth tenor; the same voice he'd always used to coax girls into his world of lies and pretension - the same voice he'd used countless times to get her into trouble at home.

"What do you want, Mukuro?" Tsuna hissed in a low tone, glaring over her shoulder at his pair of mismatched eyes. Mukuro leaned back and ran a gloved hand through his hair slowly, making sure everyone in the class saw him - not that he wasn't already distinguishable with that height, and blue-black hair of his. His princely feints always sickened her, and was why she'd pretend she had no prior connections with him, what-so-ever. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to see my little Tsunayoshi," Mukuro said, and leaned his back against the wall while he took his time to 'see'. "Have you fed Mukurowl this morning?" he asked, enjoying the attention people gave him. People were so dazzled by his looks that they didn't even question the name, 'Mukurowl'. None of them would've guessed that it was the name of Mukuro's pet puppy.

"Yes, and I hope your dog choked on his food," Tsuna said, genuinely. Haruka-san left her the task of feeding Mukurowl this morning, and he nearly bit her hand off when she fed him. He was more like an alligator than the average canine beast. "What kind of a name is Mukurowl anyway? You always give weird names. And did you dump your girlfriend again? You always do that before you send your girlfriend to come looking for me, even though you already know where I am."

"Oya oya, that's harsh, Tsunayoshi." Mukuro's mouth curved upwards at her words. "I'm only doing it for you."

"Liar." Tsuna said, as she walked away from him. "What do you want this time, Mukuro?"

"Kufufufu… Ah, the reason." Mukuro said. "Haruka's starting the preparations for mother's return - you know what that means, don't you?"

Tsuna's heart sank at the news. It was all too soon. "…Yes…" She said. "I do…"

"Oh, and one more thing. Can you go down to the stores and get another pack of Mukurowl's favourites?" Mukuro asked, before he turned around and disappeared down the corridors. "I've run out on them and he needs something to chew on or his teeth get out of control."

Well, that explained a lot.

* * *

><p>'<em>Puppy's Paradise Lane<em>' was the name of the peculiar store Mukuro wanted Tsuna to buy Mukurowl's things. It was a top-notch, fancy shop that looked like it had been dropped right out of doggie heaven and had managed to squeeze itself in the middle of a not-so-fancy town like Namimori. The workers there looked out of place too, having half the enthusiasm one would expect from someone working at a place with 'Paradise' in the name.

However, this seemed to change every time Tsuna entered the store to do an errand.

"Is that all, miss?" the young man behind the counter asked brightly when she came up to his register with the small bag of dog treats. He scanned the item and plopped it into a plastic bag without taking his eyes off her at all. "That'll be a five."

Tsuna handed him the right amount of money without making eye contact, proceeded to take her stuff and like usual, hurried out of the store.

"Please come again!" He called after her diligently, giving her a long wave. "Please!"

The rain was pouring when she left the store and she pulled out her umbrella, thankful that she'd packed it that morning before she left the house. It wasn't much of the help she expected, and it was only a matter of time until her lower half was all completely drenched with rain water. The wind blew the rain at an angle, ducking under her umbrella and hit her legs full on with its coldness - which was a great thing, considering the heat of the days before - but that thought was dampened when it started thunder storming.

"W-what's this for?" Tsuna asked, when Giotto came up to her in an orange and black pinstriped dress shirt and handed her a spare worker's uniform to change into. It was a two-part set - well three, if you included the apron she usually had to wear while working. Never had the existence of a uniform ever crossed her mind when she worked at the store - she just assumed they never had one as Giotto and G were always wearing different clothes every time she saw them.

"You can't work like that," Giotto said, as he pushed the clothes back into Tsuna's hands when she tried to return it. "You'll catch a cold."

"I won't need it." Tsuna said, earnestly. She couldn't even remember the last time she had a runny nose, or a sore throat. "If it's about my skirt. I think it'll dry on its own if you give it a few more minutes." And to make a point, she grabbed her skirt and flapped it around a little, lifting it up to her mid-thighs. She could tell that wasn't true, when a few drops of water flicked out of it and because it was heavier than usual… but other than that it was fine. Totally.

"Uh, no it won't." Giotto stated.

"…How would _you_ know?"

"Just put this on, Tsuna." Giotto said. Then he reconsidered. "Or would you rather one of Haru's suits again?"

Tsuna immediately grabbed the clothes from his hands when he mentioned those fluffy stuff. "N-no, thanks. Anything but that." she said quickly. Then he stifled a chuckle, and she flushed once she realised that he just made her go along with his ways. She sighed, then shot a glare at him when a smile spread across his mouth, and made a point of showcasing her anger by stomping off into the break room to change. "Fine! I'll put it on- but you're not going to like it!"

He just laughed.

Whether she herself liked it or not, she had no idea. She had no idea why she said that. either. The uniform she was given consisted of a nice long sleeved button-up shirt with puffs on her upper arms and a rounded collar. Her skirt was long and frilly and black with a large bow at the back where the base of her spine rested. It looked a little too formal and old-fashioned to have been made recently, and she guessed that perhaps Giotto's grandfather was the one who stocked up the shop's uniforms - which then raised more questions than what she wanted answered, so she tried to ignore it.

"There you are." were the first words Giotto said when she decided to once again emerge into the world. Then he clipped a large bow onto the top of her hair, while she was distracted with the pieces of paper in his hand. He petted her head. "It's great that I found this lying around in the storage, isn't it."

"What? What's_ this_ for?" Tsuna said suspiciously, reaching to touch the thing that uncomfortably matted the top of her hair down. "Why am I wearing a bow? Is there another event today, manager?"

"It's Ieya-" Giotto said. He sighed tiredly and massaged his temples. "Geez. You're still not used to saying my name…? I thought I told you-"

"Yes, I know what you told me. You've said it many times. It's just that…" Tsuna avoided his gaze and looked at the ground. "...It's weird."

"You trying to say my name is weird?"

"No, I'm not." Tsuna shook her head. "I'm just… not used to doing it because I was taught to respect those who stand above me. It doesn't seem right - no matter how hard I try- to call you anything but 'manager' when I work, 'cause you're my manager and boss and all that..."

"This again? You call G by his name even though he's a year older than me."

"G's a _friend_." Tsuna pointed, as if there was a difference.

"Oh?" Giotto said, intrigued by the way the brunette had put things. "Then it'll be fine so long as I'm anything but _your 'boss'_?"

"Yes… I-I suppose…" The brunette said unsurely.

Giotto rolled his eyes, defeated. "Well, just to let you know I'm planning on closing the shop next Tuesday because G and I will be leaving for Italy in a few days' time. There's going to be an event on Monday, and your job today Tsuna, will be promoting the event by handing out these flyers to people as they walk by. Understood?"

"You're really leaving, huh…" Tsuna said, saddened by the thought of no longer being able to come here and work with Kyoko and Haru. They said that they weren't going to be working over the weekend because of their school festival. And she was _so_ looking forward to spending more valuable time with Kyoko and Haru as the three of them, too. The weekend that Tsuna was looking forward to: ruined.

"We have to because of the attack and all that." Giotto said. "We can't leave things as they are between the families."

"Yeah, I know… the mafia business..." She looked away from his eyes as she said this, and then there was an awkward silence between the both of them as neither party knew how to go from here. He was a mafia boss, she was a high schooler who just happened to work at his café and had overheard his secret. Ever since that time, he never talked with about his family in Italy anymore and had tried to make things as normal as possible by trying to get her more involved with Haru and Kyoko's festivity, even though she knew perfectly well that these things were just a façade - he was just pitying her.

But that was alright, because she could deal with it.

"…So you understand what you have to do?" Giotto said, trying to enlighten the mood that he had disrupted. He lifted her hands up gently and placed the brightly coloured flyers into them, giving her a light push on the back. "Off you go now, young lady. You're the only one who could do this."

"What are Haru and Kyoko going to do?" Tsuna asked, looking back at his warm, assuring smile. She pulled at her apron. "Are they wearing this uniform, too?"

"They're still at the back preparing for their festival." Giotto reminded her.

"O-oh…" Tsuna said, surprised that they were still doing that even though the festival was tomorrow. T-they probably didn't know that they only had a few more days together here. And anywhere else, once her stepmother comes home. They were probably never told about the fact that the shop was closing on Tuesday, too.

The rain had subsided when she went out to hand out the flyers but the grey and black-ish clouds of the evening didn't make things any brighter. Still, she kept the same smile on her face as she gave the flyers to kind, passing pedestrians. Most of them were high schoolers like herself, but have mistaken her to be younger than what she really was - complimenting her on her outfit and asked her to pose for them while they took photos with their cell phones. Some of the boys had come around a second time for another flyer saying that it was for their friends. They didn't sound like they meant it, though.

Tsuna gave the last flyer to a little pre-schooler who was strolling with her mother. The kid presented a toothy grin and a big-hearted wave at the girl who dressed in fancy clothes. "Okaa-san, it's cosplay! Cosplay!" she'd cried, as soon as she spotted Tsuna. The brunette wondered with a lovely sweat drop as to where the young girl had learnt the word. She wasn't in cosplay.

"All done?" Giotto asked, as she came back into the shop with empty hands. "That was quick."

"Your flyers were popular." Tsuna said, sighing tiredly as she dropped into the closest family seater. She lied down, then added, "And so was your uniform. They took a lot of photos and thought I was a middle-schooler because of my height. I wonder if they'll treat me like a proper woman once I grow taller. Do you think that's ever going to happen?"

Giotto chuckled, then placed a cold beverage onto Tsuna's table as her reward. "I don't know. I think you're perfect the way you are." He said, sitting down beside her with a cup of coffee. There was no one left in the shop besides the employees now.

Tsuna turned her head and frowned at the orange-coloured beverage. "Is that... juice?"

"Mmhm." Giotto replied.

"Why juice? I want to have some coffee too." Tsuna pouted, sitting up to have a staring show down with the glass of orange juice. She watched on as water droplets formed on the glass, dripping down to join the small ringed puddle. "Last time you gave me hot chocolate. Now it's juice. Is this because you think I like sweet things?"

"No," Giotto said slowly, sipping on his coffee. "It's because you don't look like the type to drink coffee. Coffee is for those with a lot of work to do. You're still in school. Have you even tried coffee before?"

"N-no…" Tsuna admitted, blushing when Giotto smiled at her response. "B-but who's to say I won't like it? A lot of people my age drink coffee."

"Okay," Giotto said simply. He set his cup down onto the table with a clink and then replaced her glass of orange juice with his cup of coffee, pushing the glass further into the middle of the table, out of the way. She eyed the hot-chocolate-look-a-like liquid. "Here, try it." He tempted.

Tsuna blinked his way, still pink in the cheeks. "I-Isn't this yours?"

"Oh, right." The indirect kiss thing. Giotto stood up. "I'll make you another one, but you'll have to drink it all whether you like it or not..."

"No!" The brunette immediately sat up. "Don't make another one!"

It was now Giotto's turn to blink. "… Why not?"

"J-just don't. You don't need to go through the trouble…" Tsuna said. She reeled in his cup of coffee with both hands. "I'm not a kid. I don't mind sharing. I don't mind germs either." Giotto sweatdropped at the last part. He was referring to the other thing, but… since she had put it that way...

Tsuna glanced between Giotto and the cup of coffee sitting in front of her like it was something alien. There were a lot of people who drank coffee, but then again there were more who didn't. Tentatively, she picked it up and pressed her lips against the rims of the cup. Squinting her eyes and furrowing her brows, she tilted her hand and poured the hot liquid down her tongue and into her mouth. It was a mistake. It didn't burn her tongue, but when the coffee spread on her palette it felt as if her whole tongue was about to shrivel up. She coughed and immediately put the cup back down. His coffee was bitter, she discovered. Very bitter...

Horrifically bitter.

"How was it?" Giotto asked, a small triumphant smile on his lips at his victory, and at the brunette who had cutely stuck out her tongue. "That was my version of black coffee so it might've been slightly more bitter than the usual. Would you like to try a different one?"

Tsuna shook her head and then reached for her beautiful glass of orange juice, still disgusted by the taste that lingered on her tongue. "No, thanks." She said, after gulping down the whole glass in one go. She didn't like coffee.

"Well, what did I say..." Giotto said lightly, reclaiming his cup. Tsuna watched on in amazement and shock when Giotto downed the rest of his coffee so easily, as if he couldn't taste the bitterness at all. When she asked him about this, he just told her that he liked his coffee that way, which puzzled her even more because there couldn't _possibly_ have been anyone in this world who could tolerate -let alone_ like_-that level of bitterness. The blonde then got up and cleaned up their tables, while Kyoko and Haru came strolling back into the room with many bags in their hands, and an unusually sombre-looking G tailing behind them.

Haru spotted the brunette making funny faces. "Hahi! What's wrong, Tsuna-san?"

"N-nothing's wrong!" Tsuna said, hopping off the chair to join the two other girls.

"Kyaa~ You look so cute in that, Tsuna-chan!" Kyoko squealed. She hugged Tsuna around the shoulders in a suffocating squeeze. She turned around to face G. "Is this the uniform you were talking about, G-san?"

"Y-yes… It is…" G replied weakly. He looked paler than usual.

"It looks so cool on you, Tsuna-san!" Haru said. Tsuna smiled meekly. As long as it made the both of them happy, she was okay with it.

Giotto raised a cautious brow at the flimsy appearance of G as he leaned against the counter, looking older than ever. Since when had his storm guardian become so weak? "O-oi, what happened to you, G? I thought I told you to-"

"-Giotto…" G interrupted. He got onto his feet and placed his hands onto the blonde's shoulders. "I can't take it anymore."

"What?" Giotto said, worry colouring his tone.

"Next time…" G shook the blonde by the shoulders softly. "Appoint _yourself_ as the fucking supervisor of those girls, why won't you."

"Hah?"

"G-san!" Haru called. G tensed. "Thankyou for wearing these costumes! They really helped us with the measurements!" Giotto gave a loud cough, and G tightened his grip on the blonde's shoulders.

"No... _problem_." G tried to smile. He glared at Giotto's wide smile, and let go of his shoulders to head back inside. "Giotto here says that he'd like to help you with those next time."

"Really?" Haru asked.

"Wait, what?" Giotto's smile faded.

"You spent the whole of today taking measurements?" Tsuna asked, looking up at the two girls. She smiled for their sake, after all, they _did _spend a lot of time working on their costumes for the play and it must've been a lot of work.

"We didn't _just_ take measurements." Haru said, lifting a finger. "We had to make sure there weren't any loose seams, we had to sew on tags, we drew up samples and we ran over the script one last time to make sure the costumes were exactly as depicted in the story. Right, Kyoko-chan?"

Kyoko nodded her head, and grabbed onto Tsuna's hands. "We really want to make an impact tomorrow. It's our first time doing this so we want to make it one of the best ones, too."

"O-oh…" Tsuna said.

"You're coming tomorrow, right, Tsuna-chan?" Kyoko asked, cocking her head in that oh so irresistibly adorable way. Her question was like a blow in the stomach for Tsuna, because she knew she _couldn't _go, no matter how hard she had begged her step parents in the past. They didn't like those sort of things.

"U-um…" Tsuna said, looking away shamefully. "I-I don't know, yet."

"Oh, please come!" Kyoko said. She shook the brunette's arm gently. "I really want you to come and see our play. Pretty please?"

"U-um…"

"Only for half an hour! Our play only goes for half an hour, is that okay?" Haru added. "Come and watch our play."

"I really don't-…" Tsuna started, but then it broke her heart when Haru and Kyoko gave her saddened looks. She heaved a weary sigh. "O-okay…"

"Really?" Haru and Kyoko cried, overjoyed. "Yay!"

Kyoko stuck out her pinkie, and made Tsuna promise that she really was going to the festival tomorrow. Carefully, the brunette hooked her smaller pinkie with Kyoko's and swore, noticing Giotto's gaze fixated on her the whole time. This just made her feel worse. Satisfied, Kyoko and Haru invited the brunette to go over to Haru's place. Using the same reason as a few days ago, she refused. Then Kyoko's brother came and picked the both of them up, bringing an extremely large umbrella to shelter all of their stuff from the rain as it bucketed down on top of them.

And at that moment, the rain didn't seem so great anymore.

"You're not really going, are you?" Giotto asked, a brow furrowing.

"No… I can't." was her reply. She just stood there, staring emptily out the window.

"But you want to go."

"…"

"Have you tried explaining it to them?" Giotto said, softly. "Your parents, I mean. I'm sure they'd understand if you told them how you felt."

"They aren't here." Tsuna said. "And I don't think they'd let me… even if I did… ask… once they came back…" Her voice grew quieter as she finished her sentence, until it was just a whisper.

"What about your siblings?" He treaded around the topic lightly. "Do you have any siblings that you could ask?"

The brunette looked uncomfortable for a second, and then averted from his gaze once again, which only made him more anxious. There was something about the way the brunette was behaving that made him feel like there was something wrong. No teenager should live by themselves. To his relief, she gave him a small nod.

"Brothers or sisters?"

"…Two older brothers…" She finally answered, in a small whisper.

"Great," Giotto said, reaching out to ruffle her hair. "How about asking them? Just for a bit. It wouldn't harm anyone." To his surprise, she didn't resist, or squirm under his grasp, but just stood there stiffly. Then the anxiety came back again, hitting him hard. It was his first time he'd asked about her family, and she'd never really talked freely about her family. He'd always been the one talking about his own sweet little - well, not _exactly little_-famiglia back in Italy, and not even once, had the brunette brought the topic up on her own.

"…I'm not going to ask them." Tsuna said, staring straight ahead as if he was transparent.

"Have you asked them before?" He asked. "Because if you did-"

"We're not that close." Tsuna said. "We might as well be strangers, if it weren't for the fact that we lived under the same roof. We don't even share the same blood. We all have different mothers."

This struck him speechless, and he stood there gaping. "You have a step mother?"

"W-w-why are we talking about this? I don't want to talk about my family right now!" Tsuna cried, revering to her senses. She pushed his hand off of her head and removed the large bow, placing it onto the table. "I won't be going tomorrow, that's all. Plus, it's not like they would actually check to see if I was there or not, with their play being so busy and all that. They wouldn't notice, even if I do turn up."

That's what she hoped.

"You can tell me anything, Tsuna."

Tsuna stopped for a split second to turn and stare at the blonde. "Tell you what?"

"About your family." Giotto finished. He smiled back at her. "Remember when I asked you to join my famiglia? I really meant it when I said that I wanted to protect you. And how you told me '_Why would you want to protect someone you don't even know_?' Well, now I want to know. So you'll tell me, right?"

Tsuna blushed, and hid her eyes with her bangs. "M-maybe…"

He chuckled lightly. "That's good enough for me."

"W-what are you going to do with the shop once you close it?" Tsuna asked, glancing around the room. "Are you just going to leave it like this?"

"Well, I suppose my grandfather wouldn't mind if I just left it untouched." He said, scratching his head. "I've seen him close it many times as a kid, so I suppose it's okay."

"Oh." Tsuna said. "You used to-"

"Giotto!" G called, sticking his head out the corridor and into the room. In his hand held a phone, and he waved it in the air a little, grabbing both of their attention. "Your call. Take it."

"Why do you always have to interrupt us, G?" Giotto sighed wearily. Disheartened, he strode towards the red head. "Why can't you take it for a change?"

"Oi, you know I can't." G said, handing Giotto the device. "It's Lampo. I'd probably end up breaking your phone, if I did."

Giotto muffled the receiver, then turned to the brunette with a smile. "It's alright for you to go now, Tsuna. Just be careful in the rain, it's thunder storming a little. And beware of strangers. I doubt that they'd be out in the rain, but there's been a few suspicious people wandering the streets these past few days. Just be extra careful."

"Right, right. I know, I know." Tsuna rolled her eyes. "And what about this uniform? Do you want me to return it?"

"Nah, keep it." Giotto waved a dismissive hand. "I don't know what I'd do with it anyway."

"Hah…" Tsuna tugged at her skirt and walked steadily towards the break room to collect her school uniform. Giotto stepped out of her way and waited until the brunette had left the shop, before he answered the phone, listening to his rather whiney and somewhat lazy-bum of a lightning guardian.

"Hello?" Giotto spoke into the receiver.

"What took you so long, Primo?!" Lampo cried loudly, as soon as he heard his boss' voice.

"Oh, I was just talking to Tsuna."

"Who's that? Have you been seeing a woman? You never told me you were seeing someone! What's she like, this Tsuna person? Is that even a girl's name? 'Cuz it sure doesn't sound like it."

"No, I'm not seeing anyone, Lampo."

"Ehh? But you're already 24! Are you even going to get a wife? Or are you going to be one of those guys who stay single the rest of their lives? That's gonna be so sad. You're just like G. There's been a lot of men who marry in their forties, nowadays, did you know that, Primo?"

"_Lampo_! We're not here to discuss this." Giotto groaned, pinching the bridge between his eyes. "Tell me why you called."

"Oh. Uh. U-um. I lost it."

"… You lost... _what_?"

"Asari's phone number and address." Lampo said. "G gave them to me, but now I can't find them."

"You can't be serious." Giotto could swear he that he could punch something right now. "Lampo! We're leaving on Tuesday, and it's up to you to find him, do you understand me?"

"We are? But how am I supposed to-"

"G's going to help you, so stop whining and do something."

"What? Why?" yelled Lampo and G at the same time.

"You'll have a better chance at finding Asari before Tuesday if there were both of you. That's why. You're going to take forever if you're by yourself." Giotto said, ignoring the pricks he'd felt from G's glares. "That's final. Just wait for G at the closest hotel, and you can tell him where you are by text. Got it? I'm hanging up."

Giotto turned off his phone, then sighed heavily. Talking to Lampo was one of the most tiresome things he's ever done.

"Are you sure about that?" G asked, breathing heavily to calm himself. He was still pretty pissed off about the fact that he had to go and look for that greenie. He wasn't, as soon as he thought of Asari, though. At least by having that guy by his side, Lampo would quiet down a little. That was what he was counting on.

"You and Lampo?" Giotto merely said.

"Tch, what else?"

"Sure, why not." Giotto shrugged his shoulders. "You need to learn to get along with others a little more. Especially those who are practically family."

"Heh. Family, eh?" G cracked a grin at this. "Speaking of family, you were talking about that with Tsuna a few moments ago, weren't ya."

"Yeah, so?" Giotto removed his apron, and dropped it onto the hook behind the prep room door, with G following closely behind him. He poured himself a glass of water.

"Do you by any chance… have any kind of feelings for her?" G asked, with a dead-panned expression. "I don't see you being overprotective with the other girls."

Giotto choked on his water, and turned bright red. "W-what kind of a stupid question is that? Don't be ridiculous. She's only in high school. There's like an… 8 year gap between us and that's freaking illegal, G."

"Talking about law now?" G handed him a towel to wipe his mouth. "You're a _mafia boss_, who asked the same girl to join your family. That's beyond comprehensible, but my question on the other hand was completely reasonable."

"Oh." Giotto said, blinking hard. "That makes sense."

"Give it some thought, why don't you." G said, and he stood back to wait for an answer. "Do you, Giotto?"

"I d-dunno." Giotto pretended as if G wasn't there, and continued to drink his water. But when G gave him a concentrated stare that was hard enough to crack his glass, he swallowed nervously and looked away.

"_Oh?_" G grinned evilly, before he spun around on his heels and headed straight for the door with a dark chuckle in his throat.

"_'Oh'_ what, G? Wait- where are you going?"

"To do my job!" G said, in a great mood. "Oh, and don't forget, Giotto..."

Giotto sighed. "_What is it?_"

"It's still illegal."

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><p>And that's all for chapter 6.<p>

**Please R & R!** Just tell me your thoughts. Stuff about the Characters- Plot- Relationship- Author's shitty updates- (cough cough, "Hey!") And whether you enjoyed the chapter or not. I know this ended up a little longer than usual... but I probably took the same amount of time to write it as I did with the others, so it's all good. If only I didn't get the writer's block so often... Well, anyways... I'd really appreciate it if you say something, it means a lot. :)


	7. Wishing Well

_**A/N:**_ I am alive.

For some of you it may have seemed like ages since the last time I posted, and to be honest, I am still not very confident in this story, ahahaha... But, just for you lovely folk I thought I'd salvage what I had begun, and whatever I have written. You deserve it, because you have and still make me incredibly happy. Stay floating, chums! :)

Happy reading!

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><p><em>'Take that money watch it burn,<em>  
><em> Sing in the river the lessons I learned<em>.  
><em> Everything that kills me makes me feel alive.<em>' - One Republic, "Counting Stars"

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><p><strong>**_** Seventh Token /**_

_**'Wishing Well'**_

The process of preparing for Tsuna's step mother's homecoming was like the slow and agonizing walk to the execution stand. Her step mother always arrived home in an extremely dark and frightening mood and no amount of water or sweet talk could quell the flames of her step mother's soon to come rage.

The maids and servants of the household knew this too, and this fact has turned what used to be a quiet and lifeless stone building into a rather loud and edgy cabaret. Nobody could get any sleep with the thoughts of their Mistress coming home. Tsuna had spent the whole night awake ever since a crow flew right into her window with a loud _SMACK!_ capable of waking the dead, rendering her frozen, wide-eyed and more alert than ever. Her fear of things crashing into her window wasn't as bad as her fear of things crashing _through _it, as well as her fear of Haruka waking up to the loud noises and the _stomp, stomp, stomp, _of her feet as she made her way up the stairs and into her bedroom.

However, Haruka didn't do that this morning. Knowing that the preparations for her precious Mistress was going to take up a lot of her energy, the woman busily snored her night away in her own quarters, trying to get as much REM sleep as she could; entering a state where no noise or apocalypse could awaken her from her slumber.

It was early in the morning when Tsuna woke up to the sound of Haruka's piercingly high voice yelling at the other maids to _hurry up and bring the mop over to the kitchen_, and to _get rid of the ugly stains on the curtains_. No wait, she couldn't really have 'woken up', since she never really had the chance to fall asleep in the first place. The brunette pressed her head into her pillow, as a feeble attempt to block out Haruka's voice. Her plan was unsuccessful though, as the voice travelled throughout the house and bounced off the stone walls. She heard it lash out at the poor old gardener; telling him to _run outside to the warehouse_ to _buy some flowers_ and to plant them into their ridiculously bare front yard, because that _wasn't _what it had looked like when the Mistress was here. Tsuna had no clue as to which front yard Haruka was talking about, because according to her memory, their yard had always been atrocious.

The woman must've thought some kind of miracle would happen if they planted the flowers now. They wouldn't grow in such a dark and gloomy place.

Nothing would.

Giving up on any prospects of further sleep, the brunette slid out of bed and stretched, feeling a great deal of satisfaction when the stiffness in her back and neck went away. The dull aches were caused by sleeping with her back curled up against the headboard, and her head smothered by her pillow - one of the many forms she had tried over the night, to no avail. Groggily, she trudged over to her bathroom to wash her face and as faint as they were, looking closely at the mirror she could see dark, bruise-like circles that had formed around her eyes.

She wasn't the only one feeling tired, though, as she came to notice. Walking down the stairs, she'd seen servants and maids dashing throughout the house with pained faces, either cussing or grumbling behind the petulant woman's back whenever she asked them to redo their chores because the results weren't of 'top-notch standard'. That was what her stepmother liked. 'Perfection'. And likewise, Haruka did too. They would've made a formidable tag-team if only her stepmother was home more often.

"Could you stay out of my way when I'm _working?_" Haruka snapped, when the brunette seated herself down by the dining table for breakfast. The woman was otherwise pre-occupied with a job. She ducked her head, looking beneath the table and then got back up as quickly as she could to give Tsuna an odd look with pursed lips. "Have you seen my glasses anywhere? I put them down on the bench and now they're gone."

Tsuna bit into her toast. "No, Haruka-san. I haven't seen them."

Haruka 'tsk'ed. "Of course you haven't. I don't know why I even bothered asking." There was a loud yell outside the kitchen window, followed by a round of raucous laughter. Quickly, Haruka hurried over to the blinds and peered through them, squinting her eyes at the group of boys walking down their street, thinking hard. She turned her head back at the brunette suspiciously as if everything that happened around this area was because of her. "Is there something going on today that I don't know about?"

"… No." Tsuna said, after a momentary silence. Haruka gave her a long and hard disbelieving look, before she shrugged her shoulders and left the kitchen in search of something to nit-pick.

"You'd better not be lying to me, girl." Haruka called. "Hey, you there! Where do you think you're putting that vase?" Haruka shooed the startled maid away with her hands. "Take it away! I put it in the living room last night so leave it there. I don't know why you're carrying it all the way here. What good would it do if it's here? It's a _kitchen_, for goodness' sake!"

The maid let out a small frightened squeak, before she scampered away with the vase in her bosom and headed for the living room, right where she came from. The whole house was in shambles with people fixing up the tedious parts of the house that were usually ignored. There were even those who travelled distances just to look for the things Haruka wanted - the only person who seemed to be enjoying herself with the commotion.

Tsuna treaded lightly back to her bedroom to change her clothes, making sure that the uniform Giotto had given her yesterday was hidden away at the back of her dresser, beneath her neatly folded underwear and garments. She put on a cream cardigan with a small stitched-in lion that covered one of her pockets, and a long pale blue skirt that reached her mid calves; just a few of her favourite articles of clothing that she liked to wear. Making sure her hair looked decent enough, she headed out her room, only to bump into Mukuro in the corridor, who donned a face that looked as though Christmas had come early.

"Kufufufu. You look as fair as a warm summer's day, my dear Tsunayoshi," Mukuro spoke, giving Tsuna a one-over. His mismatched eyes trailed from the cardigan to her skirt. "I see you're still refusing to let me see any bit of that creamy skin of yours. How cruel, Tsunayoshi. Why won't you wear a short skirt for me? I'm sure we could find one that suits your tastes."

"Ew," said Tsuna. Her cheeks flushed horribly at his vulgar suggestion. "Why would I want to wear those things?"

"Oh!" Mukuro brought a hand back to stroke his hair, and shook his head slowly as if her words were too much for him to handle. "Kufufufu. My dear Tsunayoshi, you will realise one day that the only way to please a man is to wear exquisitely revealing clothing, to doll yourself up with makeup and to play by their rules."

"You're just a pervert, Mukuro," said Tsuna. Who would want to please _him_? She flinched at his hand that reached for her cheek. Instantly, she stepped backwards, tripped over the rug in the hallway, and fell over onto her behind. Grimacing at her own clumsiness, she glared daggers at the smirk stretched right across Mukuro's face. "Don't you dare," she warned in a low tone.

"Kufufufu, alright." He retrieved his outstretched hand, and just stood by silently as she picked herself up, dusting off the debris that had stuck to her skirt.

"Why is it so difficult living under the same roof as you?" grumbled Tsuna. "You and everybody else in my life just _love_ giving me hell, don't you?"

"That is my affection for you. Accept it." Mukuro said nonchalantly, no longer in the mood to play. "Did you do what I asked you to do yesterday?"

"Yes, I bought your stupid dog's treats and gave them to him, happy?" She had stuffed Mukurowl's food bowl full of treats yesterday, in hopes that he would eat himself to death. She stuck her tongue out at him, then made her way towards the staircase for a bit of deserved freedom from his tyrannical grasp.

"I'm not happy, Tsunayoshi," said Mukuro. He appeared in front of her in a flash, blocking her path and proceeded to stare down at her. "Come with me to Mukurowl's den and I will show you."

"Why?"

"Because you _didn't_ do as I asked," said Mukuro. "Follow me."

Immediately, he turned around and descended the stairs, expecting her to follow, and she will. - She had to.

"I asked for dried pork bones, not tiny lumps of dog treats that would turn his teeth useless." He said, not looking back to check and see if she was following closely behind him, as it was only natural for her to do so obediently. Tsuna gulped.

Crap. "P-pork bones?" Tsuna whispered. Since when did that dog start chewing _on pork bones_? At this rate it wouldn't be long until it started chewing on human bones. "You never said anything about bones!"

"I asked for Mukurowl's _favourites_," Mukuro said, slowly. He scoffed. "In what universe would small lumps of dog treats be Mukurowl's favourites?"

"Well, how was I supposed to know what his favourites were?" she defended. She could feel her heart beating through the drums of her ears now. "You never specified!"

"Well now you know," Mukuro said. They entered the kitchen, and Tsuna could feel Haruka's eyes pinned onto her. She only wished Haruka would stay in the kitchen and be occupied with something else, and just leave her alone. Entering the backyard through the back door, the two of them were greeted with gleefully ferocious barking and growling. Chained to his den, was the ugly-faced dog of Mukuro's.

"H-hello there," Tsuna squeaked. Mukurowl gave her an especially harsh bark in return. Her eyes went for his food bowl at the very back of the yard, and spotted its silver rims. She blinked in confusion.

It was empty.

"I threw out the 'dog treats' that you had bought," said Mukuro.

"What- Why?" Tsuna spun around to stare at his cold and hard-edged expression. His mismatched eyes that never relented. "That's so cruel. They're still edible. You could have kept them as dog food."

"I didn't ask for those. They're not what I wanted."

"Then you could have gone and bought them yourself," said Tsuna, feeling her irritability growing by the second.

"Why would I want to do something like _that_?" He made a face in disgust at her preposterous idea. He raised a finger and pointed at the bite marks on Mukurowl's wooden den. "See there? That's what happens when you don't buy him his bones. He gets irritable and starts chewing on other things. You should be grateful that he's on a leash, or else who knows what he's going to chew."

The sound of the back door closing and the stomping footsteps approaching them were enough to tell Tsuna to go run and hide. As if knowing what was to happen, she turned around at the right moment to look at Haruka's face light up with merriment. The head servant could just _tell _when something was wrong.

"What's the matter, Mukuro-sama?" Haruka asked softly, taking in the surroundings to see if she could spot the problem herself, and do them all a good deed. "Is there something wrong?"

"Kufufufu." Mukuro glanced down at Tsuna, sneering. Tsuna gulped. He wouldn't tell Haruka, would he? Bending down towards Tsuna, he whispered gently into her ear. "If you go down on your knees and apologize to me, I won't tell her."

"Mukuro-sama?" Haruka gave the both of them a quick look, making sure her eyes never missed anything she could report to her beloved Mistress.

"Do it." Mukuro ordered, visibly enjoying the torment that stretched across the brunette's face.

Gritting her teeth, Tsuna bit back her pride. She reached for the hems of her skirt, and raised it carefully so it was out of the way, before she fell to her knees. The concrete met her with all enthusiasm by tearing peals of pain throughout her legs, reverberating again and again until it spread through her body like poison, numbing her body as it went.

"I'm sorry," Tsuna muttered emotionlessly, with her head lowered. Her apology was followed by silence.

"Very good, Tsunayoshi," Mukuro said, sounding pleased and satisfied. "It seems that all is well here."

"What is she doing?" Haruka asked, pointing rudely.

"It's nothing to worry about," said Mukuro, "It's only a small disagreement. You may leave us."

Suspicious of Mukuro's words, Haruka walked cautiously over to Mukurowl's den, making 'tsk', 'tsk' noises at the mess it's made of her Mistress' back yard. She muttered to herself for a while, and then her eyes landed on Mukurowl's food bowl, where she stopped to stare at what lied beside it. Then she gasped.

"My glasses!" Haruka cried. Her finger shook tremendously as she pointed it at Mukurowl's water bowl. Sure enough, swimming inside it were her red rimmed glasses, cracked and broken with bite marks that suggested vicious chewing and chewing. "What have you done to my glasses, you wild, feral do-"

"What are you calling my dog, Haruka?" asked Mukuro in a foreboding tone. Haruka did the honours of shutting herself up.

"N-nothing, Mukuro-sama," answered Haruka, burning bright with embarrassment at her blunder.

"I will not allow anyone to insult Mukurowl like that. It is your own fault for leaving your glasses where Mukurowl could reach them, and..." Mukuro said to Haruka, speaking in a cold and heartless manner. He narrowed his gaze piercingly when she opened her mouth to speak. "I told you to _leave_."

"Y-yes, I'm sorry Mukuro-sama," Haruka blinked, stupefied at the harshness in his tone. With what seemed like eons, she finally decided to remove herself from the back yard, closing the door behind her with a small, almost inaudible, but ashamed click. Mukurowl also returned to his den for rest, leaving the two of them alone together in the presence of nobody else.

Tsuna hated kneeling.

Numbed beyond belief, her legs were as heavy as stones. She could _almost _feel the pins and needles stabbing them, but they weren't quite there. She could sense Mukuro's eyes locked onto her head; his gaze was penetrating through the space between them, daring her to look up at him. She didn't.

"Look at me," said Mukuro.

She lowered her gaze to the ground. Almost instantly, his gloved hand violently grasped her chin and forced it upwards until her eyes met with those dark orbs of his. With an expressionless face he bored into her appearance for a while. He tightened his merciless grip on her chin and moved closer to get a better look at the features of her face. His eyes were dark. So very dark, and this frightened her.

"Oya," Mukuro's brow furrowed in disappointment, his finger traced the curves of her lip delicately. "This is not the expression I wanted to see."

Breaking free, she tore away from his hand and scrambled to her feet before he could react. "L-leave me alone," she cried, backing away and out of his reach. The throbbing in her knees came on and electrified tenfold at her sudden movements, but she dared not turn her back to him. Who knows what this creep would do. She needed to get away from here. Away from _him_.

She ran back into the house, stumbling over a few steps every now and then on the stairs until she made it back to her room. She slammed the door shut and dropped breathlessly to the floor. The silence and warmth of her room provided instant comfort and sanctuary. Lying down on the floor, she rolled over to her back to stare blankly at the white and bare ceiling. For so many years, she had spent long hours of her life in this very same spot staring at the very same ceiling - doing nothing. She covered her face with her arms, blocking the small ray of sunlight that had escaped through the gap in her curtains.

Taking deep breaths, she calmed her heart down and then sat up to examine her stinging knees. She groaned at the state of her knee. If raw, pink and torn skin wasn't pretty enough, then small bits of gravel and dirt just about tipped the scales. Brilliant. She let out a heavy sigh. Gotta trust herself in sustaining injuries all on her own. She dragged herself to the bathroom to wash out her wounds, finding a few Band-Aids in the cupboard beneath her white sink.

She fixed herself up, then walked over to her desk to busy herself by doing her homework. She pulled out her textbooks from her bag and got started on English literature, struggling to understand a mind-numbing passage. She read it over and over to herself, then once again out loud. Muffled voices from the other side of her bedroom door distracted her and she lost her concentration at every outburst. She squeezed her head with the heels of her palm. Why was this so hard? She shut the textbook closed with a snap and tossed it aside, pulling out the next piece of work yet to be completed.

She didn't even bother opening up her maths book. God knows what magic he could do, but there was no miracle that could make her understand the mumbo jumbo of letters, '_x_'s and miniature numbers stringed into long equations. Who needed all that? She leaned back into her chair, finding herself looking up at the ceiling yet again. It was no fun spending her weekend by herself, cooped up in such a place. She peered down at the clock sitting beside her orange table lamp. Kyoko and Haru were probably presenting their performance to their guests at the festival now. Did they manage to get their costumes done on time?

She really wanted to see them. If only there was a way…

The smell of freshly cooked rice and fish wafted into her room, and Tsuna's stomach grumbled. All this thinking has made her hungry.

Stretching her legs out, she removed her stiff bottom from her seat and stealthily opened her door ajar. After making sure the coast was clear of anyone with mismatched eyes, she slipped out of her room and followed the source of the smell with her nose to the servants' kitchens. This kitchen was a lot smaller than the main house's kitchen but it was where most of the cook's work was done, preparing for special occasions and most importantly, the Mistress' and Master's meals.

Tsuna poked her head into the kitchen, and saw the standing cook with his back to her, busy setting the grilled fish into portions on small plates. She leaned against the door, and it creaked noisily.

"Sawada?" the cook said, turning around to reveal the wrinkled features of his face, "Is that you?"

"Y-yes, it's me," Tsuna replied, taking the old man's question as an invitation to come inside. Old age and hardships have moulded his once soft features, leaving that permanent frown between his brows.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, placing the dirtied plates into the sink. "Just set yourself down in the dining room, I'll bring you your food in a jiffy."

"No, it's alright. I can do it myself," Tsuna offered, walking over to the bench to help herself to a bowl of rice.

"Are you sure?" he asked, then he cleared his throat. "Well, do what you want then, child."

Taking the bowl of rice and a plate of grilled fish she stood by the edge of the bench, and started on her food.

"Itadakimasu."

The cook gave her a questioning look, drawing his brows closer together. "You're not going to just stand and eat your food like that, are you? Go take your food to the dining room, child. Shoo."

"I don't want to," said Tsuna. She blew on her steaming rice, before picking up a small chunk of it with her chopsticks. Carefully, she placed it into her mouth and savoured the taste of it, blowing out hot puffs of air. "It's fine. It's better here."

The cook shook his head. "I don't get you, child. You're not _supposed_ to be eating here, and I'm_ supposed_ to get you to have your meals in the dining room." He turned on the tap, filling it with soapy water. "But I suppose it's nothing but nonsense that the Mistress made up. Who's to say where you should and shouldn't eat? Eat wherever you want, child. So long as you're enjoying your food, good for you."

Tsuna ate her food contentedly, in the presence of the old cook. She was just about finished her food when her nose picked up the familiar scent of bread. She looked over the bench and at the oven on the other side of the room, which she hadn't noticed. She turned to the cook stacking up the washed plates. "Are you baking something?"

"_Are you baking something?_" At this, the cook snorted loudly. "I think the question you should be asking is, '_Why are you baking?_'"

This confused Tsuna.

"Oh, that's right, I need you to do me a favour," the cook suddenly remembered. A light bulb lit up above his head as his stout legs carried him over to the other side of the room to open a cupboard, retrieving a small pouch of what Tsuna assumed was money. Her assumption was correct, as he pulled out a note and headed over towards her, handing her the money.

Tsuna stared at the sum he'd placed into her hands.

"Can you go out and buy some things and flour for me?" the cook asked, already returning to his bench to continue on with his job. "I'm too busy to go myself, otherwise I would've gone. I still need to come up with an inspiration for the Mistress' large cake."

"I thought she hated sweets and cakes," Tsuna said, simply.

"Go and tell that to the damned head servant, then," the cook coughed, bringing a knife down hard onto the chopping board to cut a carrot. "Who does she think we're expecting- some _Queen_? I don't even know why I'm baking a go child, it's not safe around me when we're talking about that old bag. It seems she's gone out for a bit, and won't be back till late."

_Oh._ Tsuna took in this news. This was good news.

The cook brought the knife down once more, sending a piece of carrot flying towards her, hitting her squarely on the side of her head. Dodging the next piece of vegetable that went soaring her way, she quickly left the servants' kitchen with a quick 'Thanks for the food'. She made a quick dash to her room, put the money from her pocket inside her wallet, and grabbed a small bag to keep everything contained- including the small nervous, but exciting squeeze she had felt in her chest. It wasn't long before she reached the front doors, where she changed into her boots and after double-checking that nobody else was there behind her, she turned the handle of the heavy door.

"I'm going out," she whispered, to the birds chirping loudly above her. The midday sun beat down brightly on the pavement, lighting up her path as she set off.

This was good.

"Plain flour?" The light haired storeman gave Tsuna a look of slight exasperation. He was a tall and slender young man, wearing the store's green uniform and navy blue apron. His clothes were absolutely creaseless and his personality was probably likewise. His attitude towards her was a little wonky, though.

"Yes," she replied timidly, feeling self-conscious beneath his scrutiny. "Do you know which aisle it's in?"

"Sure, it's in aisle four, section three." He stepped aside to gesture behind him, at the long rows of identical aisles lined up one after the other like stacks of dominoes. "See that one down there, where the mother with her pram is at? That's where you'd find all your equipment and ingredients needed for baking, and also for making desserts. I'm sure you'd be able to find plain flour at the very end of the aisle."

There were so many women with prams here today - which one was he talking about? There were at least four of them in that direction. She sweatdropped. He trotted off into the crowd before she could ask him to clarify and abandoned her to her own devices.

Looking on the bright side though, he had given her the general direction at the very least. Following her sixth sense, she drifted amongst the crowd, winding through large families until she felt she had arrived at the right place. She paused to scan the lengthy aisle sectioned up into further rows, and then at the items on the shelves. Spatulas and trays were the first things she saw.

Well, what about that? Her sixth sense actually worked.

Encouraged by her sudden stroke of luck, she dug out the note the cook had given her and narrowed her eyes to read his tiny, indecipherable loops and swirls. Spending a considerable amount of time to decipher a few words, she blinked hard. There was something wrong with her vision. There were at least 10 different items listed, and each had their own multiplier signs beside them. Oh great.

"Plain flour times 3," she murmured, bringing the piece of paper close to her face, "self-raising flour times 1, a mix of forest berries times 3, condensed milk times 5, chocolate bar times 2…"

Going through the list another time, she folded the piece of paper in half, then tucked it into her cardigan's pocket with a great big sigh. Grabbing a basket from the pile at the start of the aisle, she headed downwards, hoping that she'd be able to find everything in one shot. She found the first few items on her list quickly, as they were displayed with obvious promotional deals in bold-printed, enlarged and highlighted labels, helping people who were unfamiliar with the place- like her.

The contents of her basket grew at an alarming rate- and she hadn't even picked up the flour yet. She went straight for the end of the aisle, groaning inwardly at the placement of the bags of flour. If the items in supermarkets were organised and placed in order of importance and relevance to the customer, it made absolutely no sense to Tsuna, no sense at all, as to why they were placed at the very top of the freaking sky high shelves, where nobody would ever be able to reach them without having to overcome the challenge of climbing the bloody shelf.

Sure, getting back to the problem of height and reach, this might've been a feat that others could accomplish with little fuss, but for someone like her, there was little she could do without the help of a step, box, or ladder. With none in sight, there was pretty much nothing that she could do. Curses. She jumped up and up again, eventually managing to brush the tips of her fingers against the base of the bag, before she landed back on the ground.

Not wishing to give up against a bag of flour, she kept jumping, getting closer and closer to the side of the bag with each attempt; until she knocked her knee against the shelf, which sent her tumbling to the ground in a ball of pain. Tired out, she crouched in a small ball and hugged her sore knee. The heat rushed to her cheeks, and she ignored the stares of prying nearby shoppers. Most of them walked around her in an elliptical fashion, and she patiently waited for the bulk to leave before she got back up again.

Tsuna looked around her at the mass of strangers. She _could _ask one of them to help, but they'd probably say no. Disheartened, she went off to search for anything that she could use as a step, and lit up in delight when she saw that the storemen had left a crate by the dairy products aisle. Hurrying back to the flour with her finding in hand, she placed the crate upside down, stabled herself on the dodgy platform and then reached, barely touching the base with her fingers.

Well, look at that.

"Don't jump." A hand appeared from behind her and removed the bag from the top shelf, dropping it casually into her basket on the ground. Following the arm, she looked warily over her shoulder and met eye-to-eye with the soft orange-brown pupils of Giotto. What was he doing here? He was wearing a casual purple dress shirt, paired up with dark skinny jeans. His brows creased together, puzzled by the look of surprise on her face. "You didn't want the bag of flour?"

"I-I did," she replied, blinking hard at the fact that he was here in a supermarket buying groceries like any other person. It was surprisingly… awkward. She peered at the contents in his basket. A tin of roasted coffee, a bag of raspberry-flavoured liquorice and a double pack of cigarettes. She knitted her brows together. "Since when do you smoke?"

"Oh, those are for G, and the sweets are for Lampo," he said, inspecting each item. Then he added quickly, "The coffee beans are mine, though."

At this, Tsuna laughed.

Giotto cracked a smile. "Are you shopping for groceries?"

"Yeah. I still need another two bags of plain flour, and a bag of self-raising flour," she pulled out the note she had stuffed into her pocket and looked through the list. She only had these and condensed milk to go. By the time she finished reading the list, Giotto had already taken the flour off the shelf and placed them into her basket, with an '_anything else?_' expression written all over his face. She gave him a nervous smile. "N-next is five tubes of condensed milk."

"_Five_?" Giotto cocked a brow at the number, astonished. "What are you making?"

"A cake."

"What kind of cake requires five tubes of sweetened milk?" He asked skeptically, shuddering at the very thought of it.

"A big cake, I guess." Tsuna shrugged her shoulders, then hopped off the crate. "I wouldn't know because I'm not the one who's going to bake it." She turned to him. "Don't you use it in the pastries that you make?"

"I don't use it often," Giotto said, frowning. "I would never use five tubes at once. I usually use buttermilk combined with raw honey. It tastes great and is much healthier than condensed milk."

"Oh, so that's why your café is so popular with the girls," she said, earning herself a deep chuckle from Giotto. No wonder Haru and Kyoko loved his pastries. Maybe she should share that tip with the cook. But then, he might have asked her to buy condensed milk on purpose. Tsuna carried her basket to where the tubes of sweetened milk sat, awaiting her arrival so they could be removed from the squishy shelf. Placing her basket onto the ground, she picked up the tubes and dropped them in, and she was done with her bit of shopping.

Then Giotto offered to carry it for her.

No, the word 'offered' didn't really do justice in describing the way he behaved. He wouldn't _let_ her carry her own basket, deciding to take custody of it and stubbornly rejecting her every time she asked for it. He stepped agilely out of her way when she reached for it, and she stumbled a little in response to the empty space. His mouth stretched into a playful smirk, taunting her to go and tag him.

Not backing down to his challenge, she returned his enthusiasm. She rolled up her sleeves and made a grab for the handle of her basket. He evaded her easily as if he was carrying an empty basket, instead of a jam-packed heavy one full of flour. Plus, he didn't seem bothered by it at all, which annoyed her even more. Picking up her pace, she made another fruitless attempt to seize a hold of her things, disgracefully colliding into a queuing man in front of her, making him smack his lips right into the back of an old granny's fuzzy, grey hair. The granny turned around with great ferocity, swinging her handbag at the man with all the wrath she could muster.

With a hurried apology to the man, she chased after Giotto with a flushed face, embarrassed. She found him leaning against the register with his hands clutching his sides, laughing uncontrollably at what she had done. She walked briskly over to him, turning a deeper shade of red.

"I caught you," she heaved, grabbing his sleeve with her hand. "And I'm not letting go."

"It doesn't count. I reached the counter before you could catch me," said Giotto, sobering up. "God, your clumsiness never fazes to amaze me, Tsunayoshi."

"What?" She blushed. How was she supposed to take that?

"That was a compliment." He pushed her basket towards the cashier, chuckling. "Let's put your things first."

Tsuna waited quietly for the cashier to finish scanning all her items, before she pulled out her wallet. Giotto made a rustling noise beside her and she sent him an angry stare. All of his generosity put aside, she was _not_ going to let him pay for the cook's things. After a silent, wordless argument between the two, he finally gave up with a saddened expression and let her pay for her own shopping. She wondered what kind of expression Giotto would have if he told her it was for the cook. She handed the cashier the money and beamed at her own triumph, drunk in her small bit of happiness.

It was a warm, contented sensation that spread in her chest. Its pleasantness surprised her, and for a moment, she wanted it to peeked at him secretly, and the warm feeling intensified. He was busy looking over his items with a serious look. She giggled. How often would you find Mafia bosses staring intently at tins of coffee like that?

He looked at her. "Hm?"

"Mm-mm. It's nothing," she hummed. She let him carry her bags under the strict condition that she carried his. They were like an old married couple, buying groceries together and carrying each other's things, she mused. Somehow she found the thought of her and Giotto being a couple humorous, and laughed.

"Care to share your thoughts?

She cocked her head. "Do you think we look like an old married couple?"

"…" Giotto paused in his steps and had gone silent beside her. "… Why do you ask?"

"It's just a thought," she said, "I'm not saying anything, but do we?"

"That's quite the thought, Tsunayoshi," Giotto laughed, a little nervously. He looked up at the ceiling through his bangs, and refused to meet her eyes.

"You find it funny, too?"

"I never said that."

"Oh." Tsuna mouthed. Maybe he didn't like the idea of the two of them together. A tinge of pink crept up to her cheeks. Feeling awkward, she changed the subject. "What's on _your_ mind right now?"

"The name Tsu-na-yo-shi," Giotto said, sounding out her name. "It's a unique name for a girl, don't you think?"

Tsuna turned to smile at him cutely, glad that he brought it up. "My dad picked it for me. He said it's a beautiful name."

"It is," he said.

"Ieyasu's a pretty rare name, too. It sounds like the name of someone from the Shogun Era," Tsuna noted, thankful of her small bit of knowledge in Japanese History. "Did your parents give you that name?"

He smiled. "No, my grandfather gave me that name when I came to Japan. My parents in Italy named me _Giotto_."

"… Giii… oooo… ttoooo…" She said, rolling the syllables around with her tongue. It was a damn hard name to say. She could hear him trying to stifle his laughter. Determined, she tried it again.

"Where do you want to go?" Giotto asked, and she realised they were standing outside along the streets of the shopping district.

Her immediate thought was 'home', but then she remembered something important. Haruka was gone for the rest of the day. Haruka wouldn't know if she had gone to the festival because she was supposedly out on an errand. She rejoiced at the fact that the cook had asked her to buy ingredients. This was a rare opportunity, and she wasn't going to let it slip by.

"Are you heading home?" Giotto looked at her, and then at the bags he was carrying. "Do you want me to-"

"I want to go to the festival."

Giotto took off. "Alright the festival's this way, follow me." Then he stopped, allowing the surprise to sink in. "Wait, you want to go to the _festival_? Did you change your mind?"

"Y-yes," she blushed, feeling squeamish under his questioning stare. There was a moment of silence between them. She could feel herself starting to panic, and the frightening thoughts she had blocked out started flowing back in, draining all her other emotions through the crack in the well of her heart.

"Do you want to drop your things off first?" Giotto asked, gently. "We can head out afterwards."

"No, I want to go now," Tsuna said, steadily. Her heart was racing. "I don't want to wait until later."

Going back home now would mean that she wasn't resolute. Nothing was going to change her mind and she wanted to prove herself right. Carefully, she sealed up the cracks of her dark, dried out well.

"I want to go," she repeated. She looked deeply into his eyes, hoping he could read her mind. She was afraid. _Don't say anything_, she told him quietly_. Don't say a word._ Don't let her decision waver. Don't make her feel bad about it_. _

_I won't_, he seemed to say.

And that was all she needed.

* * *

><p><strong>End note:<strong>

I might try and see if I can salvage any more of this. I accidently broke my computer with my stupidly almighty thumb last year and will have to work from my backups. I am in my final year of school so things will get busy later on. It's amazing how time flies.

Thank you all very much! *_sends virtual hugs to all of you awesome people_*

**R+R** would be sweet!:)


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